Leafy Hepaticae of Montana and Phytogeographic Relationships to Neighboring States and Provinces

Abstract

The known Montana flora of thalloid Hepaticae consists of 26 species in 17 genera and 11 families. The following five species are reported new to Montana: Riccardia multifida (L.) S. Gray, R. palmata (Hedw.) Carruth., Lunularia cruciata (L.) Dum., Riccia fluitans L., and Ricciocarpus natans (L.) Corda. This catalog of taxa is based upon the study of 800 collections. The species belong to several floristic elements: circumpolar, boreal montane (26.9% of the reported taxa); circumpolar, arctic-temperate alpine-montane (19.2%); circumpolar, boreal-temperate montane (19.2%); circumpolar, arctic-alpine (7.7%); circumpolar, temperate (19.2%); circumpolar, cordilleran (3.9%) and American, cordilleran (3.9%). Jones (1910) listed twenty-four species of liverworts in Montana. Among these species, Asterella ludwigii (under A. gracilis), Marchantia polymorpha and Metzgeria pubescens were thalloid liverworts. Actually these species were all collected by Holzinger from the Glacier National Park and were determined by Evans. Evans (1917) listed Riccia frostii, using the material collected from the Great Falls area. Clark and Frye (1928) listed the following nine species of thalloid hepatics in Montana: Asterella lindenbergiana, A. ludwigii, A. saccata, Conocephalum conicum, Marchantia polymorpha, Metzgeria pubescens, Pellia endiviifolia, Riccia frostii and Riccardia latifrons. In 1931 they listed Pellia neesiana from Glacier National Park, making a total of ten. In 1934 they listed an additional three species of hepatics as new to Montana flora. Among these, Clevea hyalina and Riccia crystallina were thalloid liverworts. In the same year Brinkman listed sixty species of hepatics in Montana of which the following eleven species were thalloid liverworts: Asterella lindenbergiana, A. ludwigii, A. saccata, Conocephalum conicum, Marchantia polymorpha, Metzgeria pubescens, Pellia endiviifolia, P. neesiana, Preissia quadrata, Riccardia latifrons and Riccia frostii. In 1937 he also listed eight species, including Pellia epiphylla and Riccia sorocarpa, as new to the hepatic flora of Montana. In the same year Clark and Frye also added Pellia epiphylla and Riccia sorocarpa to the thalloid hepatic flora of Montana. Later, Frye and Clark (1937-1947) listed the following fifteen species for the thalloid hepatic flora of Montana: Asterella lindenbergiana, A. ludwigii, A. saccata, Clevea hyalina, Conocephalum conicum, Marchantia polymorpha, Metzgeria pubescens, 1I thank President Msgr. Anthony Brown, Dean Dr. Francis DiRocco, Chairman Prof. Edward Peressini, Rev. Dr. Francis McInnis and Sister Maryann Benoit for their assistance. I especially wish to thank Drs. W. E. Booth, L. H. Harvey, F. G. Hermann and W. B. Schofield for the loan of herbarium material and for the use of their collections. ' Department of Biology, College of Great Falls, Great Falls, Montana 59405. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 05:41:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1977] HONG: THALLOID HEPATICAE OF MONTANA 271 Pellia endiviifolia, P. epiphylla, P. neesiana, Preissia quadrata, Riccardia latifrons, Riccia crystallina, R. frostii and R. sorocarpa. Hong (1967, 1968a,b) listed eight new species of thalloid liverworts. In 1969 Hermann listed seventeen species of thalloid liverworts with seventy species of leafy liverworts from Glacier National Park. The above mentioned hepatic publications except those of Frye and Clark (19371947) are mainly concerned with leafy liverworts, and no papers were published dealing only with thalloid liverworts. The aim of this study is to report the taxa of thalloid liverworts which occur in Montana and to compare this flora to that of neighboring states and provinces of Canada. I have made over one hundred twenty collecting trips throughout the state since 1965 and have made over eight hundred collections of thalloid Hepaticae. This report is based on the above collections, herbarium specimens of the University of Montana (MONTU) and Montana State University (MONT) and literature reports from the previously mentioned papers as well as those in the following: Bird, 1973a; Bird & Hong, 1969, 1975; Evans, 1920; Hong, 1975, 1976, 1977; Porter, 1933, 1935; Schofield, 1968; Schuster, 1953. In general the arrangement of families follows the classification of Arnell (1956) and Schuster (1966). The species and genera are arranged alphabetically within the families. Collection numbers are mine and where more than two collections were made at a given locality, the number of collections is given in parentheses. The author listed in the last parentheses under each taxon indicates a record that is without a specifically named locality. The distribution element of each taxon is described through the system of Bird and Hong (1969, 1975) and Bird (1973b). Voucher specimens were deposited at the College of Great Falls. Counties within the state and bordering states and provinces are shown in Hong (1975).