Malesian Moss Handbook

The Malesian archipelago (Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines and Papua) has a rich moss flora, with both asian and austral-pacific elements represented. However, although there have been some important books written on the mosses of the area (e.g. Fleischer, 1904, Die Musci der Flora von Buitenzorg; Bartram, 1939, Mosses of the Phillipines) most of these are now taxonomically and geographically out of date. The Handbook of the Malesian Mosses was developed by Alan Eddy at NHM to provide straight-forward descriptions and illustrations to allow the mosses of the region to be identified. Three volumes, on the acrocarps, were prepared by Eddy and published between 1989 and 1996, but the pleurocarp volumes were not completed.
In the current project, treatments for the pleurocarp families will be prepared by different specialists, both from the region and internationally, and made available on this website, together with illustrations, keys, maps, specimen data and images, and potentially also gene sequence date and other information. The taxonomic treatments will be compiled and published as books.

Treatments of pleurocarpous taxa completed by Alan Eddy

In 1998 Alan Eddy had completed a number of family, genus and species level descriptions for taxa, most of which were then considered to belong in the Leucodontales, and would have been included in Volume Four in the Handbook series (Hypnales and Hookeriales would have been in Volume Five). Since that time there have been extensive changes in the understanding of pleurocarp relationships as a consequence of the many studies using molecular data and cladistic analysis. In particular it has been recognised that the leucodontalean taxa have probably arisen several times from within the Hypnales (Buck et al. 2000), while the Hookeriales, while monophyletic, may also be derived within the Hypnales (several unpublished studies). On the other hand, the relationships of the basal pleurocarps have been more clearly established, resulting in the recognition of several small Orders of "pleurocarpids" (Bell et al. 2007).

The following lists indicate 1) the taxa that are recorded in the region , and 2) those for which there is some existing text, which may not be complete, including taxon descriptions, synonymy or keys. Alan had also made line drawings of most of the species for which there are descriptions - a list of these may be supplied at a later date.

These different components represent a significant amount of work by Alan and should be used wherever possible as the basis for completing the treatment. Authors of the taxon treatments for the pleurocarp volumes should read the Instructions for authors (general information , taxon descriptions and illustration preparations), which are available for download as pdf files.

References:

Bell NE, Quandt D, O'Brien TJ, Newton AE. 2007. Taxonomy and phylogeny in the earliest diverging pleurocarps: square holes and bifurcating pegs. Bryologist 110: 533-560

Buck WR, Goffinet B, Shaw AJ. 2000. Testing morphological concepts of orders of pleurocarpous mosses (Bryophyta) using phylogenetic reconstructions based on trnL-trnF and rps4 sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 16: 180-198.