Morphological and anatomical evidence suggest that 'Hylocomiaceae' taxa belong to at least two clades

Abstract

Members of the moss family Hylocomiaceae have been hypothesized to belong to more than one major clade. While molecular studies performed so far are inconclusive regarding Hylocomiaceae relationships, morphological data are used here to test this hypothesis, based on species representing all genera of the Hylocomiaceae as well as some genera that possibly belong to this family. The results of the analysis suggest that Hylocomiaceae members belong to two major clades, one including mainly northern temperate species and one mainly tropical to subtropical taxa, with most of the latter species found in S.E. Asia. With the morphological context provided here, the next step in the investigation of this family should include both studies of more taxa outside the family, to correctly infer the phylogenetic relationships in a larger framework, and the addition of data from several molecular markers belonging to more than one genome.

Keywords:

• HYLOCOMIACEAE
• MORPHOLOGY
• PHYLOGENY
• PHYTOGEOGRAPHY