Support from DNA data for a narrow species concept in<i>Schistidium</i>(Grimmiaceae, Musci)

Abstract

A study of ITS1 of 28 specimens of eight species of Schistidium from well-separated populations in Russia and northwest Europe revealed that there are very big differences between species (up to 16 substitutions and 256 indels), whereas within the species differences in DNA there are very few (none to four substitutions and none to six indels). These results strongly support the narrow species concept in Schistidium. Schistidium papillosum is represented by two quite distinct genotypes and probably needs further splitting.