Campylopus japonicus New to North America North of Mexico

Abstract

Campylopus japonicus Broth., a species previously known from east and southeast Asia and Mexico, is reported as new to Canada, where it was collected on the Queen Charlotte Islands. During my stay as a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, Dale Vitt gave me an unidentified specimen of Campylopus for identification, which he had collected on the Queen Charlotte Islands. The specimen did not match any other species of Campylopus so far reported from North America, north of Mexico (Frahm 1980). At first look it seemed not to be identical with any other species of this genus. This was, however, due to the fact that the leaves in the upper fifth of the plants were totally different from the dead, brown leaves in the lower part of the stem. When I examined the lower leaves under the microscope, it turned out that these were much narrower and longer, and especially showed basal laminal cells which were thick-walled with conspicuous short rectangular cells adjacent to the nerve. Such a character is rarely present in this genus [e.g., in Campylopus andersonii C. Milll., C. zygodonticarpus (C. Miill.) Par., or C. cygneus (Hedw.) Brid., all from the neotropics] but is characteristic for C. japonicus Broth. Except for the smaller size of the plants and leaves, all other characters matched this species, and the specimen can be regarded as a depauperate expression of it. The abnormal leaves in the upper, living part of the stem can be interpreted as caused by severe changes of the habitat, a blanket bog, which could have been dried up at least partially. CANADA. BRITISH COLUMBIA. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS: Graham Island, SE of Prospect Lake, 53058'N, 13 1045'W, elev. ca. 60 m. Blanket bogs with mud-bottom pools, and forests, Vitt 30663 (ALTA, hb. Frahm). The habitat is quite unusual for this species, which is found on humic soil and wet rocks and cliffs. The surrounding vegetation consisted of sparsely vegetated pools with carpets ofSphagnumfallax; lawns with Pinus contorta, Juniperus communis, Empetrum nigrum, Kalmia polifolia, Scirpus caespitosus, Eriophorum angustifolium, Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Trientalis europaea, Gentiana douglasiana, Drosera rotundifolia, Sphagnum nemoreum, S. papillosum, and Calypogeia sphagnicola; and forests with Pinus, Thuja plicata, Juniperus, Ledum, Gaultheria shallon, and Hylocomium splendens. This is probably also the reason for the depauperate condition of the specimen. Since the Queen Charlotte Islands were not ice-covered during the Pleistocene, this-albeit unusual--habitat could be the reason for its relictual occurrence in western North America. The tufts are to 5 cm high, which is normal in this species; the lower stem leaves are, however, only 3 mm long, instead of 5-7 mm as in other parts of its range. Illustrations are in Frahm (1991 a, fig. 82). The species has hyaline-tipped leaves in exposed habitats but is more often epilose, as in the Queen Charlotte specimen. As pointed out by Frahm (1992), C japonicus can be misidentified as C atrovirens De Not., which has a similar appearance. The latter is rather frequent on the Queen Charlotte Islands but differs by its elongate, oval, upper laminal cells and ventral hyalocysts in transverse sections of the costa, whereas C. japonicus has short, rectangular, upper laminal cells and a transverse section with ventral substereids in the lower part and ventral stereids in the upper part of the costa. Campylopusjaponicus was described from Japan and was known for a long time only from east Asia, where it is found in southern Japan, southern Korea, Taiwan, and China (Frahm 1992). Surprisingly, this species also occurs in Mexico, from where it was described as C saint-pierrei Th6r. (Frahm 1991 a). As already mentioned by Frahm (1987), C japonicus was supposed to be closely related to other species in Australasia. In a treatment of the Australian species of Campylopus (Frahm 1987), C excurrens Dix., described from Queensland, Australia, was placed into synonymy with C eberhardtii Par., described from Tonkin, northern Vietnam. Also, material from Tahiti was referred to this species. A recent reexamination of the types of C japonicus, C eberhardtii, C excurrens, and the material from Tahiti proved that they must be regarded as conspecific. There is, of course, some degree of variation, which is not surprising regarding the large range. Furthermore, the variation is much lower than in some other species of the genus, e.g., in C. flexuosus (Hedw.) Brid. There is especially a certain transition 0007-2745/93/142-144$0.45/0 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.51 on Mon, 01 Aug 2016 05:58:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1993] FRAHM: CAMPYLOPUS JAPONICUS IN NORTH AMERICA 143