Campylopus pyriformis New to North America

Abstract

Based on three collections made by W. D. Reese in Louisiana and Mississippi, Cam- pylopus pyriformis is reported as new to North America. The hitherto known range included the subantarctic north to southern Brazil and western Europe. The North American specimens resemble those of the Brazilian population and therefore it is supposed that C. pyriformis belongs to the floristic element disjunct between Brazil and southeast North America, which includes four other species of Campylopus. Campylopus pyriformis (K. F. Schultz) Brid. was described from Germany in 1819 and was consid- ered to be endemic to the oceanic parts of western Europe. Corley and Frahm (1982) found that this species was also widespread in the subantarctic parts of the southern hemisphere. This distribution pat- tern led to the suspicion that C. pyriformis might have been introduced into Europe like C. introflexus (Hedw.) Brid., which has the same range in the southern hemisphere and was introduced into Eu- rope in 1942. The introduction of C. pyriformis into Europe must have happened in the 17th or 18th