Morinia saitoana, a New Species of Pottiaceae (Bryopsida) from Mexico

Abstract

Morinia saitoana is described as a new species from material col- lected in Cofre de Perote, Veracruz, Mexico. With this addition, the genus consists of three species and two varieties, distributed from Mexico to northern South America. Specimens of a moss recently collected at high elevations on Cofre de Perote in Ve- racruz, Mexico, are here recognized as representing a new species in the Latin American genus Morinia Card. (Pottiaceae). The following combination of character states is diag- nostic: leaves sharply recurved to squarrose above a sheathing base; lower leaves red- brown; margins of the upper leaf narrowly recurved and bistratose; upper laminal papillae low, crowded, multiplex, 2-4 per cell surface, costa with hydroid (Begleiter) cells, peri- chaetial leaves enlarged and sheathing the seta, capsules long-cylindric and peristome teeth filamentous, long, orange and twisted. The new species, which we name for Dr. Kamezo Saito in recognition of his fine studies on the Pottiaceae of eastern Asia, is distinguished from other taxa of the genus (see Zander 1978) by the key given below.