Phylogenetic affinities and conservation status of Telaranea murphyae Paton in Britain

Abstract

The United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plans includes protection plans for 27 liverworts and 76 mosses. One of the most complicated examples of British plant rarity concerns the leafy liverwort Telaranea. Of the three species recognized in the literature for the British Isles, two (T. tetradactyla and T. murphyae) have been considered recent introductions to the British flora, because their occurrence is restricted to in or near botanic gardens. Both species have recently been transferred to the genus Tricholepidozia. Tricholepidozia murphyae, unlike any other bryophyte on the British Red List, is regarded as non-native, of unknown origin. We selected two molecular markers from different genomic compartments to fit in with existing datasets for Lepidoziaceae, in order to elucidate the origin and affinities of this enigmatic, non-native British endemic, and thus assist prioritization of conservation efforts. We sequenced multiple accessions of all three currently recognized British Telaranea and Tricholepidozia. Based on sequence data, while Telaranea europea is genetically isolated from all other sequenced Lepidoziaceae, it seems that Tricholepidozia murphyae merely represents a separate genetic introduction from the Austral T. tetradactlya/T. lindenbergii species group into the British Isles, and as such, in the UK it should be considered of low conservation priority. We thus synonymize T. murphyae under T. tetradactyla, while acknowledging that taxonomy within the T. tetradactlya/T. lindenbergii species complex still requires revision.

Keywords:

• Botanic gardens
• Conservation efforts
• Dispersal
• Lepidoziaceae
• Tricholepidozia

Acknowledgments

We offer thanks to J. Heinrichs and K. Feldberg for providing primers, L.M. Villarreal-Forrest for transcribing genetic distances, F. Christie (E) for microscope help and D.C. Cargill (CANB), C. Ellis (E), R. Porley and S.S. Renner (M) for literature. Funding for this project was provided by DFG grant RE-603/14-1 and SYNTHESYS GB-TAF-1893 to JCVA.

Taxonomic Additions and Changes: Tricholepidozia tetradactyla (Hook.f. & Taylor) E.D.Cooper (Tricholepidozia murphyae (Paton) E.D.Cooper syn. nov.)