Tuesday 27 September 2016

Didymodon hengduanensis: A new species of Moss from the Hengduan Mountains of southwest China.

The Hengduan Mountains form the southeastern tip of the Himalayas, stretching from eastern Sichuan Province through northern Yunnan and southeaster Tibet into southern Myanmar. The range comprises a series of parallel north-south mountain ridges with south-flowing rivers between. The area is considered to be one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with sharp divisions in flora and fauna both between the valleys of the range and at different altitudes on the mountains, leading to a very high number of endemic species.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 21 September 2016, Juan Jiménez of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica) at the Universidad de Murcia, David Long of the Department of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences, James Shevok of the Royal Botanical Garden iEdinburgh and Juan Guerra, also of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica) at the Universidad de Murcia, describe a new species of Moss from the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

The new Moss is placed in the widespread and specious genus Didymodon, and given the specific name hengduanensis, meaning 'from Henduan'. The species is described from five specimens from Lushu, Heqing, Gongshan, and Shangri-la counties in Yunnan Province and Yajiang County in Sichuan Province, collected by Davd Long and James Shevock during a series of joint expeditions with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The moss grows in dense tufts reaching 3.7 cm in height, and yellowish green in colour. It is distinguished from other Mosses in the genus Didymodon by its long, pointed leaves and by the presence of a leaf margin, made up of cells distinct from those of the rest of the leaf.

Habit of Didymodon hengduanensis in dry state. Jiménez et al. (2016).

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/didymodon-novae-zelandiae-new-species.htmlDidymodon novae-zelandiae: A new species of Moss from Manukau Harbour, New Zealand.                                                    Mosses are among the simplest and most ancient groups of plants. They lack flowers, seeds and roots, and only have very simple vascular systems...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/mosses-from-late-eocene-rovno-amber.htmlMosses from Late Eocene Rovno Amber. Mosses are thought to be among the most ancient of plant groups, and still make up a significant proportion of all plant communities. They are an ancient group, considerably predating vascular plants such as Ferns and Seed Plants, but they have a poor fossil record, largely due to their lack of...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/two-new-species-of-moss-from-permian-of.htmlTwo new species of Moss from the Permian of Brazil.                                                         Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they...
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