Fossombroniopsida

Petalophyllum ralfsii, photographed by Des Callaghan.

Belongs within: Marchantiophyta.

The Fossombroniopsida is a group of liverworts centered on the family Fossombroniaceae. Frey et al. (2001) distinguished the Fossombroniopsida from other liverworts by their having the solitary male and female gametangia placed acropetally above the thallus axis, capsules without valves and irregularly dissolving, and sporophytes contained in a unistratose pseudoperianth. However, Crandall-Stotler et al. (2002) distinguished Petalophyllum from the Fossombroniaceae on the basis of its having the archegonia in distinct clusters rather than scattered, and also pointed out that the Fossombroniaceae lack a true pseudoperianth (present in Petalophyllum). Petalophyllum also has a simple thallus while that of Fossombroniaceae is highly dissected.

<==Fossombroniopsida
    |--Fossombroniaceae [Fossombroniineae, Fossombronioideae] FHH01
    |    |--Austrofossombronia C-SSF02
    |    `--Fossombronia FHH01
    |         |--F. caespitiformis SF01
    |         |--F. echinata FHH01
    |         |--F. foveolata SF01
    |         |--F. himalayensis G06
    |         |--F. naumanii Schiffn. & Gottsche 1890 E03
    |         `--F. pusilla (Linnaeus) Dumort. 1835 [=Jungermannia pusilla Linnaeus 1753] SS07
    `--Petalophyllum Nees & Gottsche ex Lehmann 1844 [Petalophyllaceae, Petalophylloideae] C-SSF02
         |--*P. preissii Lehmann 1844 C-SSF02
         |--P. americanum Ford & Stotler-Crandall in Crandall-Stotler, Stotler & Ford 2002 C-SSF02
         |--P. australe Colenso 1885 [=P. australis (l. c.)] C-SSF02
         |--P. hodgsonii Ford & Stotler-Crandall in Crandall-Stotler, Stotler & Ford 2002 C-SSF02
         |--P. macrocalyx Colenso 1886 C-SSF02
         `--P. ralfsii [=Jungermannia ralfsii; incl. P. lamellatum] C-SSF02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C-SSF02] Crandall-Stotler, B. J., R. E. Stotler & C. H. Ford. 2002. Contributions toward a monograph of Petalophyllum (Marchantiophyta). Novon 12: 334-337.

[E03] Evans, A. W. 1903. Hepaticae collected in southern Patagonia. In Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899, vol. 8 – Botany (W. B. Scott, ed.) pp. 35-62. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

[FHH01] Frey, W., M. Hofmann & H. H. Hilger. 2001. The gametophyte-sporophyte junction: Unequivocal hints for two evolutionary lines of archegoniate land plants. Flora 196: 431-445.

[G06] Ghosh, J. P. 2006. A preliminary check-list of hepatics of West Bengal. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 48 (1-4): 73-102.

[SS07] Singh, S. K. & D. K. Singh. 2007. A preliminary census of Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of Doon Valley. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49 (1-4): 1-14.

[SF01] Stech, M., & W. Frey. 2001. CpDNA-relationship and classification of the liverworts (Hepaticophytina, Bryophyta). Nova Hedwigia 72 (1-2): 45-58.