Distribution and Habitat of the Malaysian Species of Lejeunea (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae), with Description of Lejeunea Tamaspocsii Sp. Nov.

Abstract

AbstractWe analyze the geographical and elevational ranges and the habitats of 30 species and two varieties of Lejeunea Lib. recorded from Malaysia. The greatest diversity of Lejeunea in Malaysia is found on Mt. Kinabalu with 27 species. The majority of the species are Malesian in distribution with a high number (8) belonging to the West Malesian element. Widely distributed species are often autoicous and produce spores freely; those with narrow distributions are more often dioicous and rarely produce spores. Dispersal of dioicous species seems to be promoted by asexual reproduction, being more common in wide-ranging dioicous species than in narrow-ranging ones. Endemism is 10% with three species being known only from Mt. Kinabalu. Range sizes of species decrease towards higher elevation and endemic species occur exclusively in the mountains. About half of the species occur in the lower montane rainforest belt, which is the elevational zone with the highest diversity of Lejeunea in Malaysia. The majority of the species are epiphytes, either corticolous or ramicolous. One species (L. dimorpha) is an obligate epiphyll. The new species Lejeunea tamaspocsii G. E. Lee is described and two new combinations, L. dipterota (Eifrig) G. E. Lee and L. exilis var. abnormis (Herzog) G. E. Lee, are proposed.