The Mosses Reported from Costa Rica

Abstract

A survey of the literature indicates that 542 species and varieties of mosses have been reported from Costa Rica. The following nomenclatural changes are made: Campylopus paramoensis nom. (C. atratus Bartr., hom. illeg.); Thamnobryum tumidicaule (Wagner) comb. nov.; Sematophyllum dimorphum (Ren. & Card.) comb. nov.; S. harpidioides (Ren. & Card.) comb. nov.; S. simulans (Ren. & Card.) comb. nov.; S. subcespitosum (Ren. & Card.) comb. nov.; S. tonduzii (Ren. & Card.) comb. Costa Rica probably has the richest moss flora of any Central American country south of Mexico, with 542 species and varieties. This probably is due to its varied ecological life zones ranging from savannah to subalpine rain paramo (Holdridge, 1967). It is also one of the better collected areas in terms of known moss species when compared to Panama for which 213 were reported by Crosby (1969b), Honduras with 126 species by various authors, Nicaragua with 110 by Crosby and Crum (1967); San Salvador is indicated to have 221 by Winkler (1965), and Bartram (1949) reported 519 species from Guatemala. A brief resume of collectors and of authors of papers on Costa Rican mosses is found in Bowers (1970); the most prolific of these were Renauld and Cardot (1893, 1905), and Bartram with numerous papers. The earliest authors to mention Costa Rican mosses were Muiller (1851) and Mitten (1869). Also, earlier authors not mentioned by Bowers (1970) include Britton and Williams (1914) and Steere (1946). Recent authors including Costa Rican reports in their papers are Reed and Robinson (1971), Robinson (1971), and Bowers et al. (1973). This floristic list of Costa Rican mosses is based on the sources mentioned above with additional information derived from taxonomic monographs and revisions. Floras and floristic lists which report various species for Costa Rica but do not cite specific specimens are omitted. A number of mosses have been described from specimens collected in Costa Rica. These are designated by sp. nov. or var. nov. after the publication reference. The names and citations are in accordance with Wijk et al. (1959-1969) unless otherwise noted. Certain new combinations had to be made in order to list certain species under correct names. The family order follows that of Bartram (1949). 1 Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory, The University of Tennessee, N.S. No. 393. Study supported in part by the Richards Foundation. 2 Department of Botany, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.159 on Sat, 22 Oct 2016 04:41:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1974] BOWERS: MOSSES OF COSTA RICA 151