Miscellaneous Notes on the Genus Sphagnum. 1-2

Abstract

Sphagnum efibrillosum Andrews of Papua New Guinea is redescribed and illustrated, and its relationship to the Subsecunda rather than the section Isocladus is confirmed. Sphagnum bourbonense is described as a new species from Redunion in the relationship of S. capense Hornsch. 1. THE RELATIONSHIPS OF SPHAGNUM EFIBRILLOSUM OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA Eddy's treatment of the Sphagna of southeastern Asia (1977) is a valuable source of taxonomic in- formation and evolutionary speculation. His well- considered views on phylogeny are interesting, but the system of classification that he used seems based more on morphological similarities than evolution- ary probabilities. It does not, in fact, depart signif- icantly from the traditional systems. However, his subgenus Isocladus, which includes most sections of the genus in addition to the highly differentiated section Isocladus, scarcely represents a single evo- lutionary pathway, and recognizing it at a subge- neric level does nothing to elucidate relationships within the genus. Eddy's treatment of Sphagnum efibrillosum An- drews, from Papua New Guinea, caught my notice because the species seems, from its description, to be in the relationship of S. macrophyllum Brid., the only species of the section Isocladus. Andrews noted that S. efibrillosum has some resemblance but no close relationship to S. macrophyllum, and Wolf- gang Maass annotated the type specimen at the New York Botanical Garden likewise. Because of its resemblance to S. macrophyllum, surely one of the most interesting and distinctive species of Sphagnum in eastern North America, both in morphology and geography, I made a detailed study of the type collection of S. efibrillosum (NY) and concluded that the species indeed belongs in the Subsecunda. The following account of the species supplements and in some ways corrects the description provided by Andrews and the illustrations prepared for him by R. S. Williams: