The terricolous Acarospora orcuttii is described from three historical collections from San Diego in 1883 and 1884 by C.R. Orcutt in the Farlow Herbarium. The species looks similar to A. fuscescens, but differs in the absence of gyrophoric acid, thinner paraphyses as well as several other characters. The species may be extinct. Terricolous lichen habitats are rare and threatened throughout coastal southern California. It is hoped some remaining populations may be discovered.

Sixteen new records (four liverworts and 12 mosses) are added to the bryoflora of Lebanon. Outstanding among the new records are Saccogyna viticulosa and Tritomaria polita, both new to the bryoflora of South-West Asia, and the range extension of Philonotis laxitexta, previously known only from Iran. The new records increase the number of bryophytes known from Lebanon to 252 (two hornworts, 43 liverworts and 207 mosses).

Erpodium cubense, previously known only from Cuba, was found in the Dominican Republic as misidentified collections of E. domingense. Fissidens cryptoneuron, previously known from tropical Africa and eastern Brazil, is reported from Bolivia. The actual or real range of a species depends upon a number of physical and biological factors. The perceived range of a species approximates the actual range; its propinquity to the actual range is dependent on correct specimen identification and scope of collecting activity.

Phlyctis subagelaea, with muriform spores and P. karnatakana with septate spores are newly described from India. Both species have a restricted distribution in Western Ghats south India where they grow on tree trunks in evergreen forest.

Six species of Punctelia with black lower surface lacking vegetative propagules are taxonomically revised. Lectotypes are designated for P. borrerina, P. microsticta and Parmelia borreri var. allophyla. Punctelia involuta Canêz & Marcelli is described as new. Punctelia borreri var. allophyla Kremp. is regarded as a synonym of P. borrerina (Nyl.) Krog, instead of P. microsticta (Müll. Arg.) Krog, as previously thought. Punctelia jujensis Adler is recorded for the first time for Brazil. All the species of this group occur in Brazil.

Although Cladonia cinerella Ahti does not appear on the North American checklist of lichens and lichenicolous fungi, it was collected once from the Everglades of Florida in 1909. Ironically, I encountered a large colony deep within the interior of Everglades National Park exactly one century plus one day after the original encounter. In this paper I present some additional observations to Ahti's description based upon living Everglades material illustrated by photos and propose the addition of C. cinerella to the above checklist.

Heiomasia is a new genus that includes two sterile species producing unique isidia-like structures for vegetative dispersal. Their systematic position was clarified using molecular analysis of the small subunit of the mitochondrial ribosomal DNA (mtSSU). The two species form a strongly supported clade occupying a somewhat isolated position within Graphidaceae s.lat. The new genus is based on H. sipmanii (Aptroot, Lücking & Rivas Plata) Nelsen, Lücking & Rivas Plata comb. nov., a species from Southeast Asia with disc-shaped isidia-like structures, originally described in the genus Herpothallon. The second species, H. seaveyorum Nelsen & Lücking spec. nov., is known only from Florida; it produces robust, sausage-shaped isidia-like structures.

Clastobryopsis imbricata sp. nov. (Pylaisiadelphaceae, Musci) is described on the basis of specimens collected at middle elevations of Doi (Mt.) Inthanon, northern Thailand. The species is characterized by strongly imbricate and spiral foliation of short ascending branches, caudate branch tips bearing smooth, filamentous gemmae in leaf axils, carinate leaves with distinct spine(s) at the base of the dorsal side of the keel, thin-walled, quadrate alar cells arranged in a scalariform manner, narrowly cylindrical capsules with perforate exostome teeth and reduced endostome, and non-collenchymatous exothecial cells. The multistratose alar cells, smooth filamentous gemmae, and non-collenchymatous exothecial cells, as well as phylogenetic inferences based on rbcL sequences, suggest that the species belongs in the genus Clastobryopsis (Pylaisiadelphaceae).

Biodiversity of threatened species can be preserved in cryopreservation repositories, allowing storage of biological information and future re-introduction to the wild. The success of ex situ programs for species conservation relies on using simple and efficient cryopreservation techniques. Bryophytes may be classified as stress-tolerant plants, but a large fraction worldwide is nevertheless threatened by extinction to various degrees. The aims of this study were to investigate how to exploit natural stress tolerance of bryophytes in the development of simple cryopreservation protocols without the use of cryoprotectants or pretreatment. We studied regeneration capacity of bryophytes found at different moisture and light conditions in vivo (reflecting varying levels of plant desiccation tolerance), both sampled from herbarium specimens of varying ages and also collected in situ during winter season and thus naturally cold acclimated. Furthermore, to identify optimal samples for direct cryopreservation we investigated how the ability to regenerate corresponds to the fragment size. We show that young samples (≤ 7 yrs) of the most desiccation tolerant species regenerate via protonemata, where shoot tips regenerate better than small plant fragments. Herbaria can therefore represent a source of samples for direct cryopreservation when using desiccation tolerant species, stored for a limited time. Conversely, all species sampled in situ regenerated, mainly through budding. In these plants, the number of regenerated samples is positively correlated to desiccation tolerance, and they show a higher frost tolerance than previously reported. Cryopreservation without pretreatment or cryoprotectants of cold acclimated bryophytes can therefore be used as a simple and efficient method for storage of bryophyte tissue.

Didymodon oedocostatus J. A. Jiménez & M. J. Cano is described and illustrated as a new species from Catamarca and Tucumán provinces in northwestern Argentina. The new taxon is characterized mainly by its appressed and imbricate leaves when dry, the red to orange reddish color in KOH, abundant propagulae in the axils of the leaves, smooth laminal cells, a wider costa at midleaf than below, and the presence of a bulging ventral costal pad of cells. Its distinction from and relationships with some closely related species within the genus are discussed.

Scleropodium australe is known from a single population in a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania and is the only southern hemisphere representative in an otherwise north temperate genus. It was originally segregated from S. cespitans based on two quantitative characters, median lamina cell width and relative costa length. Molecular data presented here (ITS, rps4, trnG, psbA2) indicate that S. australe is nested within a well supported clade of S. touretii. Morphological measurements also fail to demonstrate any differences between S. australe and S. touretii. Based on the lack of any molecular or morphological differences between these species and the single known station of the latter species at a ruderal site, S. australe is reduced to synonomy with S. touretii, with the interpretation that the Tasmanian population is introduced from Europe.

Austrolejeunea secunda differs from all other species belonging to the Siphonolejeunea generic complex in its acuminate, ventrally secund leaf lobes that have both acroscopic and basiscopic margins reflexed to form a channel extending the entire length of the antical margin, the truncate underleaf lobe apex, the first lobule tooth of three moniliform cells, and the presence of second and third lobule teeth. It is the third New Zealand species of Austrolejeunea from subalpine habitats, and brings to seven the number of Austrolejeunea species known from New Zealand.

Bryophyte population sex ratios are predominately female-biased, at least with respect to plants expressing sexual structures. One hypothesis to explain this bias is that males produce sexual structures less often than females, but occur at similar frequencies, a hypothesis termed the “shy male hypothesis.” Another nonexclusive possibility is that offspring sex ratios (as sporelings) are biased and populations retain this bias. To test these hypotheses, we examined sex ratios in expressing and nonexpressing shoots for the cosmopolitan moss Bryum argenteum collected in the field, and in shoots grown from spores in the lab. An examination of 154 collections of B. argenteum from native habitats and urban settings in the USA revealed that populations were significantly female-biased (>80% female). Male rarity was most pronounced in aridland regions of the Mojave Desert and California chaparral; males were significantly more common in altered urban habitats and in high elevation native habitats. When all shoots from clumps representing three mixed-sex, sporophytic populations were grown to sex expression, male nonexpressing shoots were not found to be significantly more abundant than expected based on the field expressing shoot sex ratio, lending little support to the “shy male hypothesis.” Offspring sex ratios derived from sporelings were not significantly different from 1∶1, thus not explaining the sharply female-biased population ratios observed in the field. We propose that factors between spore germination and adult maturation, including clonal dynamics, are causing the female-biased population and within-clump sex ratio imbalance of B. argenteum.