Weissia controversa Hedw. [Paraguay] New National and Regional Bryophyte Records

GUILLERMO M. SUÁREZ; FLORES, JORGE R. & ZANDER, RICHARD H.

JOURNAL OF BRYOLOGY

MANEY PUBLISHING

Lugar: London; Año: 2014 vol. 2 p. 134 - 151

0373-6687

The bryological flora of Paraguay, as is the case with certain other South American countries (Suárez & Schiavone, 2013), is poorly known. As part of project "Studies of the Bryophyte Flora of the Cone Sur (Systematics and Phylogeny)", specimens recently collected in Paraguay were identified as Weissia controversa Hedw., a genus and species not previously recorded in this country. Nine genera and 13 species of Pottiaceae´s family are recorded in Paraguay (O´Shea & Price, 2008). Weissia controversa is well known as one of more characteristic species of Weissia. It is widely distributed in the world, in South America, is known from Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil (Delgadillo et al. 1995) and Argentina (Matteri, 2003). In Paraguay was found growing on soil, in Paraguarí (Cerro Hú), an area of the humid Chaco, which has an annual average precipitation range of 500-1200 mm, and temperatures between 20-23 °C. This species is characterized by the leaves long-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, mucronate, with incurved margins. The peristome in the operculate capsule may be entirely wanting or reduced in the Paraguayan plants. This species is illustrated by Zander (1993: 179) and by Guerra (2006: 69, in Flora Briofítica Ibérica).