Reported once and then deleted as a misidentification, Neckeropsis obtusata is confirmed as a component of the Hawaiian flora based on newly collected material. The species is still known only from a very limited area of the westernmost main island of Kauai and may represent an adventive introduction

Olson, Storrs L.

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131Tropical Bryology 17: 131-132, 1999Muscis Hawaiiensis Mantissae II.  Neckeropsis obtusata (Mont.)Fleisch. restored to the flora of the archipelagoStorrs L. Olson217 N. Jackson Street, Arlington, Virginia 22201, U.S.A.Abstract:  Reported once and then deleted as a misidentification, Neckeropsis obtusata is confirmedas a component of the Hawaiian flora based on newly collected material.  The species is still knownonly from a very limited area of the westernmost main island of Kauai and may represent an adventiveintroduction.The known distribution of Neckeropsisobtusata is mainly along the rim of the westernPacific from Vietnam (locus typicus Tourane =Da Nang), Taiwan, and the Ryukyus, to Japan.Bartram (1933:179) considered it „a fineaddition“ to the flora of the Hawaiian Islandswhen he identified a collection from WaimeaCanyon, Kauai, as this species.  In his revisionof Neckeropsis, Touw (1962) did not include theHawaiian Islands in the range of N. obtusata.In subsequent correspondence with William J.Hoe, Touw stated that Bartram’s record had beenbased on misidentified material of N. lepineana(Mont.) Fleisch., the only other species of thegenus known in the archipelago.  Consequently,N. obtusata was among the taxa that Hoe (1974)rejected from the Hawaiian flora.I collected a Neckeropsis in mesic forestat middle elevation on Kauai that, by theconsistent presence of single, well-developedcosta, seemingly had to be something other thanN. lepineana.  Though abundant at this site—an extensive mat of these plants covered muchof a large volcanic boulder—the material wasentirely without sporophytes.  A duplicate(deposited at L) was sent to Touw foridentification, who informed me (in litt. 10March 1994, 10 April 1994) that he nowconsidered this specimen, the one initiallyidentified by Bartram, and three additionalcollections made in Waimea Canyon in 1977 byHoe, to be correctly referred to N. obtusata, atleast as far as can be asserted in the absence ofsporophytes with any of the material.Neckeropsis obtusata (Mont.) Fleisch.:HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: Kauai, MakaweliDistrict, on large boulder in mesic forest on Wbank of Mahaikona Stream, between theintersection of Olokele Ditch (350m) and the fallsat about 600 m, 12 February 1993.  (Olson 470,L).132Mahaikona Stream drains into WaipioValley, the next drainage to reach the sea east ofthe Waimea/Makaweli valley system in whichprevious collections of this moss were made.Both areas have experienced considerablehorticultural development and transplantings offlowering plants, so that the occurence of N.obtusata on Kauai can perhaps be attributedentirely to human intervention.  On the otherhand, Kauai is the nearest main Hawaiian Is-land to the potential source area for naturalcolonization by asexual anemochores of thisspecies.  Nevertheless, the apparent restrictionof the species to a small area of a single islandsuggests that its occurrence in the archipelagomay not be natural.AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to Keith Robinson for access to theMahaikona Stream site and for guiding and assistingme, along with R. P. Gaige II.  I thank A. Touw foridentifications and information and W. Buck and W.Hoe for comments on the manuscript.ReferencesBartram, E. B.  1933.  Manual of Hawaiian mosses.Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 101: 1-275.Hoe, W. J.  1974.  Annotated checklist of Hawaiianmosses.  Lyonia 1: 1-45.Touw, A.  1962.  Revision of the moss-genusNeckeropsis (Neckeraceae) I. Asiatic and Pacificspecies.  Blumea 11:373-425.

Muscis Hawaiiensis Mantissae : 2., Neckeropsis obtusata (Mont.) Fleisch. restored to the flora of the archipelago

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