Documents pour la connaissance des australiens (Hépatiques, Marchantiales) ouvelles récoltes. Taxons nouveaux. Commentaires morphologiques et écologiques.

Abstract

The genus Riccia belongs to the order Marchantiales, to the suborder Ricciineae Buch, to the family Ricciaceae Reichenb. A “Revision of the genus Riccia (Hepaticae) in Australia” was published in 1980 by O. Na-Thalang. It contains the description of 33 species based on specimens preserved in Taylor's and Stephani's herbaria, in Na-Thalang's own collections and among material belonging to several collectors. Later, two new subgenera were created: Viridisquamata (Jovet-Ast 1984), Triseriata (Jovet-Ast 1996). Recently, R.D. Seppelt (1998) published new descriptions of previously known species collected in South Australia. However, a number of species remained unknown. The purpose of this work is to construct a key to the subgenera, describe some new species, indicate some new localities for known species, give indications of the ecology, origin and biogeography of the Australian Riccia species. The observations were based on specimens lent by different collectors: O.H. Volk, A. Breuil-See, Karsten, Dr Ducker, W.A. Weber and D. McVean, J.H. Willis, D.R. Selkirk. The characters for 3 recently described species are repeated: R. caroliniana, R. pullulans, R. singularis (Jovet-Ast 1984, 1996, 1997). Once more, the morphologies of R. bifurca and R. subbifurca are compared.