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Type: Article
Published: 2012-09-25
Page range: 55–64
Abstract views: 22
PDF downloaded: 28

A 150 year-old mystery solved: Transfer of the rheophytic endemic liverwort Myriocolea irrorata to Colura

Department of Systematic Botany, Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences, Georg August University, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany. Email
Department of Systematic Botany, Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences, Georg August University, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Mittlere Letten 11, 88634 Herdwangen-Schönach, Germany
Botany Department, Institute of Biology, Eszterházy College, Eger, Pf 43, H-3301, Hungary
Department of Systematic Botany, Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences, Georg August University, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Department of Systematic Botany with Herbarium Haussknecht and Botanical Garden, Friedrich Schiller University, Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
Courant Research Centre Geobiology, Georg August University, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Lejeuneaceae liverwort Porellales taxonomy Bryophytes

Abstract

Myriocolea irrorata is an endemic rheophytic liverwort known from a few localities in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador. Morphologically it belongs to the Cololejeunea-Tuyamaella clade of Lejeuneaceae, however, due to its exclusively Radula-type branching, transversely inserted, hollow leaves, large size, and an extremely high number of clustered gynoecia it has often been regarded as an isolated element of this group. Phylogenetic analyses of a molecular dataset consisting of three markers (nuclear ribosomal ITS region, plastidic trnL-F region and rbcL gene) and 20 accessions resolved Myriocolea in one of the main clades of Colura, sister to the generitype Colura calyptrifolia. Based on the molecular topology and a reinterpretation of morphological traits, Myriocolea irrorata is transferred to Colura, as Colura irrorata. The example Myriocolea/Colura adds to growing evidence that rheophytic liverworts may develop unusual morphologies that hamper their classification using exclusively morphology.