Three mosses are reported as new to countries in southern Africa: Brothera leana (Sull.) Müll.Hal., Gammiella ceylonensis (Broth. in Herzog) B.C.Tan & W.R.Buck from KwaZulu-Natal and Neckera valentiniana Besch. from Lesotho

Duckett, Jeffrey G.

Matcham, Howard W.

English

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5TROPICAL BRYOLOGY 24  (2003)Two mosses new to the Republic of South AfricaTropical Bryology 24: 5-6, 2003Two mosses new to the Republic of South Africa and the mossNeckera valentiniana Besch. new to the Kingdom of Lesotho .Howard W. Matcham1 and Jeffrey G. Duckett2121,Temple Bar, Strettington, Chichester, West Sussex. PO18 0LB, U.K.E-mail:  hwmatcham@madasafish.com2School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road,London E1 4NSE-mail:  j.g.duckett@qmul.ac.ukAbstract:  Three mosses are reported as new to countries in southern Africa: Brothera leana (Sull.)Müll.Hal., Gammiella ceylonensis (Broth. in Herzog) B.C.Tan & W.R.Buck from KwaZulu-Nataland Neckera valentiniana Besch. from Lesotho.Brothera leana (Sull.) Müll.Hal.  KWAZULU-NATAL:  ‘Crystal Falls’, Monk’s Cowl Stateforest, Champagne Castle, Central Drakensberg,29° 04  S, 29° 23  E.  On fallen decorticatingtree trunk in a stream,1400 m, 21 April 1997,Matcham & Duckett 5088a, det. H.W. Matcham,conf. B.J. O’Shea.  Specimens deposited in BM,PRE, QMW and in the private herbarium of H.W.Matcham.  This is the second record from thesouthern hemisphere, the only other record beingfrom Malawi (Pócs, 1993).  In the field thisspecies was mistaken for a deciduous leavedCampylopus.  Only after examination under themicroscope was its true identity revealed.  Thisspecies has a widespread distribution in thenorthern hemisphere (see Mueller & Frahm1987) being found from the eastern and southernUnited States, south to Guatemala, and on theIndian subcontinent (Bhutan, India, Nepal,Pakistan), Indochina (Burma, Thailand), Siberia,Mongolia, China, Japan, Korea, Sikkim, Taiwan,Philippines and the Malay Peninsula.  The abovecollection is a considerable southerly extensionof range.Gammiella ceylonensis (Broth. in Herzog)B.C.Tan & W.R.Buck  KWAZULU-NATAL:  ‘Fernforest’, above Champagne Castle hotel,Champagne Castle, Central Drakensberg, 29° 03S, 29° 23  E.  North facing basalt rock underPodocarpus species, 1300 m, 24 April 1994,Matcham & Duckett 1284a, det. B.J. O’Shea.6TROPICAL BRYOLOGY 24  (2003)Matcham & DuckettSpecimens deposited in BM and the privateherbarium of H.W. Matcham. Primarily anAsiatic genus containing eight species. In Africa,Gammiella ceylonensis has been recorded fromCongo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzaniaand Malawi and (as Clastobryella pusilla (Thér.)Wijk & Margad.) from Madagascar (O’Shea, inpress).   The above collection is also aconsiderable southerly extension of range.Neckera valentiniana Besch.  LESOTHO:  MaseruDistrict;  ca. 7 km southwest of Roma near thevillage of Ha Mahlelebe, north of the Koro-Kororiver, 29° 28  S, 27° 40  E.  On the trunk of alarge tree in a small wooded area of a steep south-facing humid sandstone ravine, 1780 m, 29 April1997, Matcham & Duckett 5216, c. spor..Specimens in QMW and the private herbariumof H.W. Matcham.  Hodgetts, Matcham andDuckett (1999) carried out an intensivebryological study of the last remaining area ofsubstantial woodland in Lesotho and it issurprising that this conspicuous species was notdiscovered during that survey, although,(Hodgetts et al., 1999) found that this habitat onthe upland basalt in Lesotho was less rich thanthe more humid woodlands on the sandstone atlower altitudes in KwaZulu-Natal.Neckera valentiniana has been recordedfrom the islands of Madagascar and Réunion andis otherwise restricted to the Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Transvaal Provinces of South Africa(O’Shea, 1999); the record from the former Zaire(Born, Frahm and Pócs 1993) is considered tobe of doubtful provenance ( De Sloover, 1977).AcknowledgementsThanks are due to Brian O’Shea for checking theBrothera leana collection with the type specimen heldat BM and for determining the Gammiella ceylonensisspecimen. In addition HWM thanks the BritishCouncil for generous funding that enabled him toparticipate in three expeditions associated with a‘Link’ between Queen Mary and Westfield Collegeand the National University of Lesotho.ReferencesBorn, S., Frahm, J-P. 7 Pócs, T.  1993.  A newchecklist of the mosses of Central Africa.Tropical Bryology 8: 223-273.De Sloover, J.L.  1977.  Note de briologie africaineVIII. Neckera, Neckeropsis.  Bulletin du JardinBotanique National de Belgique 47:  31-48.Hodgetts, N.G., Matcham, H.W. & Duckett, J.G.1999.  Bryophytes collected in Lesotho, the NatalDrakensberg and the Orange Free State, southernAfrica.  Journal of Bryology 21: 133-155.Mueller, P. & Frahm, J-P.  1987.  A review of theParaleucobryoideae (Dicranaceae) NovaHedwigia 15 (3): 283-314.O’Shea, B.J. 1999.  Checklist of the mosses of sub-Saharan Africa (version 3, 11/99).  TropicalBryology research Reports 1: 1-133.O’Shea, B.J. (in press). A review of GammiellaBroth. (Sematophyllaceae, Bryopsida) in Africa,with a range extension to the East African islandsand southern Africa.Pócs, T.  1993.  Brothera leana (Sull.) C. Müll., aLaurasian species in tropical Africa.  Bulletin duJardin Botanique National de Belgique 62:  221-224.

Two mosses new to the Republic of South Africa and the moss Neckera valentiniana Besch. new to the Kingdom of Lesotho

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