Meteoriaceae

Papillaria flavolimbata, photographed by Heino Lepp.
Belongs within: Hypnales.

The Meteoriaceae are a mainly Southern Hemisphere family of mosses with a characteristic pendent habit, though some montane species tend to lose this feature. A number of species are able to propagate through branch fragments due to the presence of subapical rhizoids (H. Streimann, 2012, Australian Mosses Online).

Characters (from Huttunen 2004): Pendent habit; monopodial growth; specific pattern of pseudoparaphyllia surrounding leaf primordia (three pseudoparaphyllia, with anterior one overlapping posterior ones); shoots either terete or complanate, foliage and appearance of the shoots plastic depending on position of the shoot relative to substrate. Leaf laminal cell shape linear to rhomboidal; cells uni- to pluripapillose; if latter papillae either scattered over cell lumen or arranged in rows over lumen or cell walls. Seta length from 1 mm to 2-3 cm. Capsules most often erect and cylindrical to oblong, but in some cases inclined and almost globose. Calyptra either hairy or naked.

<==Meteoriaceae
    |--Aerobryidium filamentosum N02
    |--Barbella (Müll.Hal.) Fleischer ex Broth. 1906 SK02
    |--Meteoridium remotifolium J87
    |--Barbellopsis Broth. 1929 SK02
    |    `--B. trichophora (Montagne) Buck 1998 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--Pseudospiridentopsis (Broth.) Fleischer 1908 SK02
    |    `--P. horrida (Mitt. ex Cardot) Fleischer 1908 SK02
    |--Meteoriopsis Fleischer ex Broth. 1906 SK02
    |    |--M. patula J87
    |    `--M. reclinata (Müll.Hal.) Fleischer ex Broth. 1906 [incl. Floribundaria robustula Broth. & Watts 1918] SK02
    |--Squamidium J87
    |    |--S. leucotrichum J87
    |    `--S. nigricans J87
    |--Meteorium Dozy & Molk. 1848 SK02
    |    |--M. buchananii (Brid.) Broth. 1906 SK02
    |    |--M. illecebrum J87
    |    `--M. polytrichum Dozy & Molk. 1848 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--Aerobryopsis Fleischer 1905 SK02
    |    |--A. longissima (Dozy & Molk) Fleischer 1905 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |    |--A. mexicana J87
    |    `--A. wallichii (Brid.) Fleischer 1908 [=Hypnum wallichii] SK02
    |--Trachypus Reinw. & Hornsch. 1829 SK02
    |    `--T. humilis Lindb. 1872 SK02
    |         |--T. h. var. humilis [incl. T. novae-caledoniae] SK02
    |         `--T. h. var. flagellifer (Broth. ex Herzog) Miller 1967 SK02
    |--Floribundaria Müll.Hal. ex Fleischer 1905 SK02
    |    |--F. floribunda (Dozy & Molk.) Fleischer 1905 SK02
    |    |--F. pseudofloribunda Fleischer 1908 SK02
    |    `--F. walkeri (Renauld & Cardot) Broth. 1906 SK02
    |--Pilotrichella (Müll.Hal.) Besch. 1872 JR-SM-G05, SK02
    |    |--P. conferta SK02
    |    |--P. cumingii D03
    |    |--P. cuspidans J87
    |    |--P. flexilis (Hedw.) Aongstr. 1876 JR-SM-G05
    |    |--P. hexasticha J87
    |    |--P. krausei D03
    |    |--P. pentasticha J87
    |    `--P. rigida (Muell) Besch 1872 JR-SM-G05
    `--Papillaria (Müll.Hal.) Lorentz 1864 SK02
         |--P. crocea (Hampe) Jaeger 1877 (see below for synonymy) SK02
         |--P. deppei (Muell.) Jaeg 1877 JR-SM-G05
         |--P. flavolimbata (Müll.Hal. & Hampe) Jaeger 1877 (see below for synonymy) SK02
         |--P. flexicaulis (Wilson) Jaeger 1877 (see below for synonymy) SK02
         |--P. imponderosa J87
         |--P. intricata (Mitt.) Müll.Hal. & Broth. 1900 [=Meteorium intricatum] SK02
         |--P. leuconeura (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1877 (see below for synonymy) SK02
         |--P. nitens (Hooker & Wilson) Sainsbury 1952 (see below for synonymy) SK02
         |--P. penicillata J87
         `--P. zeloflexicaulis Streimann 1991 SK02

Aerobryopsis longissima (Dozy & Molk) Fleischer 1905 [incl. A. stigmatophylla (n. n.), Meteorium stigmatophyllum Müll.Hal. ex Bailey 1890 (n. n.)] SK02

Barbellopsis trichophora (Montagne) Buck 1998 [=Barbella trichophora (Montagne) Fleischer ex Broth. 1906; incl. Meteorium cinclidotus (n. n.), M. compressum Mitt. 1882, Papillaria compressa (Mitt.) Kindb. 1891, Barbella cubensis (Mitt.) Broth. 1906, Meteorium dicladioides (n. n.), Barbella enervis, Neckera trichophoroides, Barbella trichophoroides, Meteorium trichophoroides, Pilotrichella trichophoroides] SK02

Meteorium polytrichum Dozy & Molk. 1848 [=M. buchananii f. polytrichum; incl. Papillaria baileyi, M. baileyi (Broth.) Broth. 1906, M. miquelianum] SK02

Papillaria crocea (Hampe) Jaeger 1877 [=Pilotrichum croceum; incl. Meteorium cuspidiferum, Papillaria cuspidifera, Trachypus hornschuchii (nom. inv.), Trachycarpus hornschuchii (nom. inv.), Neckera kermadecensis, Meteorium kermadecense, Papillaria kermadecensis, Pilotrichella kermadecensis, Neckera nigrescens (nom. inv.), Papillaria nigrescens, Pilotrichum nigrescens, N. reginae, Meteorium reginae, Papillaria reginae (Hampe) Jaeger 1877, Pilotrichella reginae, Pilotrichum sieberi Hampe 1847 (n. n.)] SK02

Papillaria flavolimbata (Müll.Hal. & Hampe) Jaeger 1877 [=Neckera flavolimbata; incl. Meteorium cuspidiferum var. cerinum, N. cerina, Papillaria cuspidifera var. cerina, Pilotrichella cerina (nom. illeg.), Trachypus cerinus, Meteorium limbatum (nom. illeg.), Neckera luteola (nom. inv.)] SK02

Papillaria flexicaulis (Wilson) Jaeger 1877 [=Meteorium flexicaule, Leskea flexicaulis (nom. inv.), Papillaria filicaule (l. c.), Trachypus flexicaulis, incl. Meteorium filipendulum, Papillaria filipendula, Pilotrichella filipendula, Meteorium filum Müll.Hal. ex Bailey 1890 (n. n.), Cryphaea novae-valesiae (n. n.), C. papillarioides (n. n.), Pilotrichum pendulinum (nom. inv.), Pilotrichum pendulum (nom. inv.), Neckera scottiae, Papillaria scottiae, Pilotrichella scottiae] SK02

Papillaria leuconeura (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1877 [incl. Neckera amblyacis, Meteorium amblyacis, Papillaria amblyacis (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1877, Pilotrichella amblyacis, Neckera eavesiana, Meteorium eavesianum, Papillaria eavesiana (Hampe) Jaeger 1877, Pa. eavesii (l. c.), Neckera squamata, Pa. squamata (Müll.Hal. ex Hampe) Hampe 1880] SK02

Papillaria nitens (Hooker & Wilson) Sainsbury 1952 [=Barbella nitens (Hooker & Wilson) Nog. 1985; incl. Neckera dimorpha, Meteorium dimorphum, Pilotrichella dimorpha (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1879, M. fulvum, Papillaria fulva (Mitt.) Jaeger 1877, Pilotrichella fulva, Pa. nitidiuscula] SK02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. The vegetation of western Patagonia. In Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899, vol. 8 – Botany (W. B. Scott, ed.) pp. 1-34. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

Huttunen, S. 2004. Phylogeny and evolutionary relationships of the moss families Brachytheciaceae and Meteoriaceae. PhD thesis, University of Helsinki.

[JR-SM-G05] Johansen, R. M., A. P. Retana-Salazar & A. Mojica-Guzmán. 2005. A review of the New World bryophyte-feeding genus Wegenerithrips Johansen 1983 (Insecta, Thysanoptera, Thripidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 85 (1): 61-83.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum – Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1-136.

[N02] Negi, H. R. 2002. Abundance and diversity of moss communities of Chopta-Tunganath in the Garhwal Himalaya. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 418-433.

[SK02] Streimann, H., & N. Klazenga. 2002. Catalogue of Australian Mosses. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series 17. Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra.