Fissidens eremicus (Fissidentaceae), a new pseudocryptic African–European species with dimorphic stems

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Within Fissidens subgenus Fissidens, several species are distinguished in Europe. Some of them are easily identifiable by their morphological characters, and others by a combination of these characters and their sexual reproduction structures. The discovery in the south of the Iberian Peninsula of collections similar to F. viridulus (Sw.) Wahlenb. but with dimorphic fronds (male and female plants) like those of F. sublimbatus Grout suggests that an undescribed taxon exists in this region.

Methods

Nuclear ITS sequences of four samples of this hypothetical new species from southern Spain and 28 specimens of other species of the subgenera Fissidens and Pachyfissidens were studied. Relationships between specimens were explored with maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analysis. A morphological study comparing the material to F. sublimbatus was also made.

Key results and conclusions

Molecular data showed high support for the recognition of a new species that also presents some morphological differences from Fissidens sublimbatus. Consequently, F. eremicus J.Guerra & J.A.Jiménez has been here described as a new species that can be considered as pseudocryptic and is readily confused with F. sublimbatus. This new taxon is known from the Canary Islands, North Africa and south-southeast Spain, colonising loamy-calcareous soils in ravines of places that are generally neither arid nor subject to much rain.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• bryophytes
• Europe
• Macaronesia
• molecular differentiation
• nuclear ITS

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to curators of MGC and CAS herbaria for sending material. Also, we thank Terry Mcintosh for editing our English grammar.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [Project PID2019-103993GB-I00].

Notes on contributors

Juan Guerra

Juan Guerra has been a full professor of botany at the University of Murcia (Spain) since 1986. He has also been the director of the Bryological Research Group since then, and director of Herbarium MUB from 2009. Previously, he worked as an associate professor at the University of Málaga.

Juan A. Jiménez

Juan A. Jiménez is an associate professor of botany at the University of Murcia (Spain), and his research focuses on systematic, taxonomy and floristics of mosses, especially those belonging to the family Pottiaceae.

Mónica Martínez

Mónica Martínez has been a research fellow since 2017 at the University of Murcia, Department of Plant Biology.

María J. Cano

María J. Cano is a full professor of botany at the University of Murcia (Spain). She holds a PhD in Biology Sciences. Her research topics include floristic, conservation, taxonomy and phylogeny of bryophytes. Her current research interest is focused on the taxonomy and phylogeny of different genera of Pottiaceae in South America.