Notes on Early Land Plants Today. 83. Re-instatement of Lejeunea parvisaccata

Abstract

Mizutani (1970) introduced a new name, Lejeunea micholitzii Mizut., when transferring Hygrolejeunea parvisaccata Steph. to Lejeunea Lib. since Lejeunea parvisaccata (Steph.) Steph. was blocking the name in Lejeunea.

The two taxa were treated as synonyms in Söderström et al. (2016) following Grolle and Piippo (1984, note 162). However, this interpretation is an error, mislead by a typographical error in the note. Lejeunea parvisaccata is thus re-instated here. Although it is similar in morphology to Lejeunea sordida (Nees) Nees and Lejeunea micholitzii, it can be recognized by the combination of several morphological characters such as underleaf and leaf apex. Owing to the lack of molecular DNA data, the exact status of this taxon is not clear, but at present it is best to treat it as a separate species.