Tortula schimperi M.J. Cano, O. Werner & J. Guerra

Hugonnot, Vincent, 2019, New records for the bryophyte flora of Corsica, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (14), pp. 153-158 : 156

Tortula schimperi M.J. Cano, O. Werner & J. Guerra

SPECIMEN EXAMINED. — France. Haute-Corse, Saliceto, Monte San Petrone, on acidic banks, 2.V.2017, 1620 m a.s.l., V. Hugonnot s.n.

Remarks

It was growing on an acidic and eroded bank with Brachytheciastrum velutinum and Oxyrrhynchium schleicheri (R. Hedw.) Röll in grazed Beech wood of the Poo balbisii-Fagetum sylvaticae Gamisans (1977) 1979 association. Very few ecological data are available in the Mediterranean basin. It had abundant sporophyte production.

Tortula schimperi distribution is not fully documented because of taxonomic uncertainties.It is a European-Temperate taxon ( Blockeel et al. 2014). At a global scale, it is recorded in Europe, northern Africa, western Asia and North America ( Blockeel et al. 2014). In Europe it is widespread distributed ( Hodgetts 2015). In the Mediterranean Region, it is recorded from Andorra, France, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Sardinia, Serbia, Sicily, Slovenia and Spain in southern Europe; Algeria in northern Africa; and Turkey in south-western Asia ( Ros et al. 2013; Hodgetts 2015) but it is certainly still underrecorded. In Mediterranean France it is a poorly known taxon with very few mentions ( Hugonnot et al. 2017).

This is a poorly known and somehow critical taxon since it has often been confused with various species in the complex Tortula subulata-mucronifolia ( Cano et al. 2005) . All previous Corsican records of Tortula subulata Hedw. , especially of the var. angustata (Schimp.) Limpr. , should be checked to verify their identity. It is possible that some of them correspond in fact to Tortula schimperi . It differs from the closely related T. subulata and from all the members of the complex ( T. inermis (Brid.) Mont. and T. mucronifolia Schwägr. ) by the occurrence of a bistratose leaf-margin whereas it is constantly unistratose in all the other species ( Cano et al. 2005).