Project name: Papaillaria revision

Description: A systematic revision of a tropical moss genus Papillaria was carried out using a traditional morphological approach and by reconstructing a phylogenetic tree using molecular data from plastid trnL-F and rpl16 regions and nuclear ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region. For the morphological study a set of qualitative and quantitative features was studied in herbarium specimens, including the types of all 55 taxa currently accepted in the genus. After revision nine species of Papillaria were recognized, Papillaria crocea and P. flexicaulis which are broadly spread in the tropics, P. africana endemic to Africa, P. laevifolia from the Americas and P. flavolimbata, P. funiformis, P. leuconeura, P. nitens and P. zeloflexicaulis distributed in Australia and the Pacific Islands. The majority of the accepted names were found not to belong to Papillaria s. str. but to the closely related genera Toloxis and Meteorium. We propose four new synonyms to P. africana as well as one new synomyn to P. laevifolia. The revision reduced the number of Papillaria species in Africa from ten to one and South America from thirteen to three. We extend the geographic range of P. crocea due to a new record from Eastern South America (Brazil).

Data type: Other

Sample scope: Monoisolate

Last updated: 2017-09-20