A revised classification of Plagiothecium in Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Introduction. The Plagiothecium flora of Myanmar is revised based on recent collections by G. Miehe and colleagues.

Methods. Specimens were studied in the herbarium, and a review of relevant type material was undertaken.

Key results and Conclusions. We recognise six species from Myanmar, of which two (Plagiothecium nemorale and P. paleaceum) were previously known, and four (P. euryphyllum, P. handelii, P. noricum, and P. subglaucum) are newly recorded. Although bona fide P. neckeroideum is also likely to occur, previous records of P. neckeroideum from Myanmar were probably P. subglaucum [syn. P. formosicum]. This smaller relative of P. neckeroideum, which produces characteristic clusters of simple gemmae at the leaf tips, was the most common species of Plagiothecium in the collections. Plagiothecium noricum is an extremely rare species previously only known from the Alps. The other five species were already known from the Sino-Himalayan region.

Our study of type specimens shows that the Myanmar endemic Plagiothecium svihlae is a synonym of Pseudotaxiphyllum pohliaecarpum. Isopterygium serrulatum of Himalayan India (lectotypified here) and I. vineale of Hawaii are also synonyms of P. pohliaecarpum. The Sino-Himalayan endemic Plagiothecium subulatum is better treated as a species of Vesicularia. The non-synonymous names P. noricum and P. neckeroideum var. myurum are both lectotypified.

KEYWORDS:

• Mosses
• new records
• Plagiotheciaceae
• taxonomy
• southeast Asia

Acknowledgements

We thank Georg Miehe for providing his bryophyte material from Myanmar for investigation and permission to deposit it in DR and C. We thank the curators of E, H, NY, UC, WTU, and WU for the loan of bryophyte specimens.

Notes on contributors

Frank Müller Curator of the herbarium in DR, with special interest in bryophyte diversity and distribution.

Justin Wynns Researcher working on moss taxonomy, ecology and phylogeny at the Natural History Museum of Denmark (C).