Susan Moyle Studlar, Linda Fuselier
Evansia 35 (1), 6-23, (1 April 2018) https://doi.org/10.1639/0747-9859-35.1.006
We inventoried bryophytes in Kentucky's Red River Gorge region (RRG) during the 4-day 2016 Crum Moss Workshop and compared our findings with those of Studlar and Snider (1989), which were based primarily on collections by Studlar 40 years earlier. We collected 185 bryophyte species (140 mosses and 45 liverworts), mainly around Corbin sandstone cliffs, arches, and rockhouses (overhangs). About 61% of the 260 taxa (176 mosses and 84 hepatics, using updated nomenclature) reported in 1989 were found again. We added to the RRG flora 20 species (15 mosses and 5 liverworts), including the disjunct Heterocladium macounii and 5 state records: 2 mosses (Serpoleskea minutissima and Cryphaea nervosa) and 3 liverworts (Microlejeunea globosa, Frullania virginica, and Cheilolejeunea conchifolia). Four species characteristic of rockhouses in sandstone gorges were recollected: Bryoxiphium norvegicum, Hookeria acutifolia, Diphyscium mucronifolium (formerly D. cumberlandianum), and Syrrhopodon texanus. The globally rare “copper moss”, Scopelophila cataractae was found again and with a sporophyte, a first report for North America. A total (including literature reports) of 289 bryophyte species (200 moss and 89 liverworts) are now known from the RRG.