Bryophytes of Mordovia State Nature Reserve (European Russia)

The present study compiles the results of bryophyte species inventories made at the Mordovia State Nature Reserve from 2014 till 2016. The reserve is located near southern limit of deciduous-coniferous forest subzone. In total 96% of the reserve is covered by forests, where about half are pine forests. The annotated bryophyte checklist includes 142 moss species and 23 liverwort species. The data on collecting site characteristics, habitats, substrates, bryophyte species frequency, and sporophyte presence are provided. Presented treatment is a key contribution to the bryophyte flora of Mordovia and important for the knowledge on bryophyte distribution of this forested area within strongly anthropogenically disturbed European Russian landscape.

New national and regional bryophyte records, 63

Erkul, Karaman ( Aksaray, Yazar )Bucklandiella subsecunda (Harv.) Bedn.-Ochyra & Ochyra Contributor. R. Ochyra Madagascar. Diana Region, Tsaratanana Massif, 14° 01′ S, 48°56′ W, 1200–2400 m a.s.l., April 1924, leg. Perrier de la Bathe s.n. (H-Brotherus, JE-Herzog, PCP.de la Varde 0707821, PC-Thériot 0708099). Racomitrium Brid., in its traditional circumscription is poorly represented in the moss flora of Madagascar and hitherto only one specimen of this genus has been discovered on this fourth largest island in the world. It was collected in 1924 by Perrier de la Bathie on the Tsaratanana Massif, and Thériot (1926) reported it as an unnamed form of Racomitrium lepervanchei Besch., a species endemic to Réunion Island. As Racomitrium proved to be heterogeneous, it was split into six segregates (Ochyra, Żarnowiec et al. 2003; Bednarek-Ochyra, Ochyra, Sawicki et al. 2014; Bednarek-Ochyra, Sawicki, Ochyra, et al. 2015; Sawicki et al. 2015), R. lepervanchei was placed in the genus Bucklandiella Roiv. Nevertheless, the voucher specimen was not studied by De Sloover (1977) in his survey of African Racomitrium and this material was assigned either to R. crispulum (Hook.f. & Wilson) Wilson (Crosby et al. 1983) or Bucklandiella membranacea (Mitt.) Bedn.-Ochyra & Ochyra (Marline et al. 2012), as R. lepervanchei was considered to be conspecific with these species (Clifford 1955; Lawton 1973). The specimen from the Tsaratanana Massif has distinct auricles and broad, flattened costa with 6–8 enlarged ventral guide cells, which are typical of Bucklandiella subsecunda. This is a pantropical oreophyte, widespread in tropical and subtropical Asia (Frisvoll 1988), subSaharan Africa (Bednarek-Ochyra and Ochyra 2012a, 2013; Ochyra and van Rooy 2013), Central and South America (Bednarek-Ochyra et al. 1999; Bednarek-Ochyra and Ochyra 2012b; Ellis, Bakalin et al. 2013) and the maritime Antarctic (Ochyra, Lewis Smith et al. 2008)