Notes on the Distribution of the Bartleya Expression of Dicranella cerviculata in Appalachian Coal Fields

Abstract

Bartleya ohioensis is considered as a synonym of Dicranella cerviculata. As a result, the distributional range of the latter in the eastern U.S. is extended southward in areas of acid drainage associated with coal deposits. Many collections have been made in Maryland, West Vir- ginia, and Kentucky. Bartleya ohioensis H. Robins. was described by Robinson (1966) on the basis of a single collection of female plants. The collection was made in Jack- son County, by Floyd Bartley, a well known amateur botanist of southern Ohio. The colony had a densely caespitose growth habit with a zonated base of the type noted in the unrelated European Ditrichum zonatum (Brid.) Limpr. The moss, though lacking capsules, could be distinguished from anything then known in the rich bryophyte flora of southern Ohio. A possible relationship to Dicranella was noted, but the apparent lack of thick walls among the small cells of the costa was considered distinct. Subse- quently, the species of Bartleya was transferred to Dicranella by Crum (1969) and still later the species was placed in the synonymy ofD. cerviculata (Hedw.) Schimp. by Crum and Anderson (1981). The present authors have compared material of Bartleya ohioensis from the Appalachians with fruiting material of Dicranella cerviculata from New Jersey, New York and Michigan, the closest areas from which that latter species had previously been recorded. The specimens of Bartleya, including the additional material reported below, falls within the range of variation of Dicranella cerviculata. The lack of capsules and more uniform aspect of the Appa- lachian Bartleya makes it convenient to refer to that material informally as an of Dicra- nella cerviculata as was done by Crum and Ander- son (1981), and it is in that sense that the name Bartleya is used below. Formal taxonomic distinc- tion seems unwarranted since the differences appear to be only restrictions of variation and function. Even before the description of Bartleya, an ad- ditional specimen had been collected by the junior author on wet cliffs along the Little Coal River in Boone County, West Virginia. The new collection was mentioned in a footnote in the original paper by Robinson (1966), but some insights into the true habitat of the Bartleya expression of Dicranella cer- viculata and its possibly wider range have remained unrecorded.