Funaria americana Lindb. in North America

Abstract

The distribution of Funaria americana Lindb. is middle and eastern North American. Reports from western North America are excluded. The species appears to be a strict calciphile with a distribution that corresponds to Pleistocene glacial and postglacial phenomena. Funaria americana Lindb. is one of the rarer mosses in North America, but has a comparatively wide distribution. Grout (1935) reported its range as Georgia, Min- nesota, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Bartram (1928) had listed California-possibly according to Jennings (1913)--but this record was correctly dismissed by Grout (1935). More recently Lawton (1971) listed an expanded distribution including Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin, and the Canadian Rocky Mountains. A comprehensive literature and herbarium survey was conducted to confirm the validity of the above reports. Historical comments. Funaria americana was initially collected in Pennsylvania by the pioneer botanist and Lutheran minister Heinrich Ludwig Muhlenberg prior to 1800. The material was sent to Johann Hedwig and referred to in manuscript under the name Funaria muhlenbergii. Early misinterpretation of American material and European materials has led to much nomenclatural confusion and misapplication of names. A recent study of related European taxa by Crundwell and Nyholm (1974) attempted to identify type ma- terials and render sense from the list of illegitimate and synonymous names. In short, Funaria americana is strictly a North American species that has been often confused with the North American-European Funaria muhlenbergii Turn. and related species. The second collection of F. americana came from the mountains of northern Georgia. Leo Lesquereux made the discovery in 1850 and supposedly conveyed a specimen to William S. Sullivant in 1871. There is no mention of this material by Sullivant (1874) although a specimen packet without contents is in the collection at NY. While this record can not be confirmed, a letter (NY) from E. G. Britton to John Holzinger in 1901 relates the details of the collection locality. Besides the Muhlenberg and Lesquereux collections, two other collections were made prior to 1900. Thomas P. James rediscovered the Pennsylvania locality in 1871, and pro- vided a liberal amount of material for distribution. Mrs. E. J. Spence made a small col- lection from a . .. rocky ravine near Springfield, Ohio, in 1891. Collections and reports chronicled since 1900 are more numerous. Most important are reports by Holzinger (1902) from Minnesota, Hill (1916) from Illinois, Bartram (1928, 1929) from Texas, Cheney (1929) from Wisconsin, Sharp (1930) from Oklahoma, Smith (1966) from Kansas, Smith (1975) from Tennessee, and Crum (1954) from San Luis Potosi, Mex- ico. Specimens that form the basis for reports from Montana, Washington, and the Ca- nadian Rocky Mountains represent other taxa, usually F. muhlenbergii.