The term “ethnobryology” was introduced about 50 years ago in a paper about the bryophytes used by the Gosiute people of Utah (Flowers 1957). Although there are fewer literature reports about human uses of bryophytes than those about vascular plants, a number of references about ethnobotanically important bryophytes do exist. These instances of ethnobryological use are all the more interesting both because of their relative rarity, and for the insights they can provide about the relation between people and small plants, like bryophytes, that lie on the cusp of human perception. This paper presents a summary of traditional uses and folk classifications of bryophytes around the world. Comparisons are made about the way that bryophytes are classified in different cultures. A list of about 150 ethnobotanical species of bryophytes is given. Many of these species have reported uses in Traditional Chinese Medicine (∼27%) and by Native North Americans (∼28%). The most common use of bryophytes is for medicinal purposes. Sphagnum, Marchantia and Polytrichum are the most commonly reported genera to have ethnobotanical uses. This paper concludes by discussing how these peculiar instances of the human use of little plants can inform the study of ethnobotany in general.

Gibberellins are phytohormones that are essential for proper growth and development of flowering plants. In bryophytes, however, the presence of gibberellins has not been firmly established, because previous reports of gibberellin-like activities were not accompanied by definitive chemical identification. By comparison, the other classical phytohormones auxin, cytokinin, abscisic acid and ethylene have been unambiguously detected in both mosses and liverworts, and their functions have been demonstrated to be very similar to those in flowering plants. The study of gibberellins in bryophytes lagged behind those of other phytohormones presumably because of the bewildering complexity and diversity in their chemical structures. In addition, working with bryophytes becomes even more challenging given their small size and the lack of obvious developmental mutants in the gibberellin signaling pathway. On the other hand, the recent sequencing of the Physcomitrella patens genome provides exciting opportunities to tackle this problem. Genes that may be involved in gibberellin biosynthesis have now been identified, paving the way for molecular genetic experiments that could reveal the role of gibberellins in bryophyte development. As bryophytes represent the earliest diverging lineages of land plants, such studies can also provide insights into how the gibberellin pathway may have evolved in the course of land plant evolution.

The genus Zygodon in the Iberian Peninsula is revised and six species are recognized: Zygodon catarinoi, Z. conoideus, Z. forsteri, Z. rupestris, Z. stirtonii and Z. viridissimus. A key, descriptions, illustrations and maps of each taxon are given. Zygodon stirtonii is reported for the Iberian Peninsula for the first time. Zygodon catarinoi and Z. bistratus are conspecific, and the former predates Z. bistratus by two days.

Dioicous bryophytes often exist in isolated populations with low rates of sexual reproduction. While most populations contain individuals of both sexes, some species have single-sex populations that depend solely on asexual reproduction for population expansion and persistence. Life history trade-offs can constrain population divergence and the relative investment in growth, asexual and sexual reproduction may differ in single-sex and both-sex populations. A common garden experiment and field observations were used to assess trait variation and determine genetic differences among single-sex and both-sex populations of Marchantia inflexa, a dioicous liverwort. Populations were significantly genetically differentiated, and plants from single-sex and both-sex populations differed in their life history strategies. Plants from single-sex populations invested more in growth than asexual production, and although they produced as many sexual structures, they produced fewer gametangia per gametophore than plants from both-sex populations. Characteristics of female plants were positively correlated with geographic, nearest-neighbor distance, whereas characteristics exhibited by male plants showed no relation to geographic distance. Single-sex populations of M. inflexa in Oklahoma and populations from Florida form a distinct phenotypic group within the species that deserves further study.

Leucobryum boninense is an enigmatic species distributed in southeast China and islands of the northwestern Pacific and is the only species of Leucobryum known from the Bonin Islands which are typical oceanic islands. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nrDNA sequences was performed to resolve phylogenetic relationships among geographically isolated populations of L. boninense and its related species. The analysis showed that L. boninense is divided into two distinct clades, which correspond to geographical regions: an oceanic island clade (Bonin clade) and a continental region clade (Ryukyu clade). These two clades were also distinguished from each other by the ratio of the length of the prorate apex region to the whole leaf length, ecological preference and the colony habit. Plants of the Ryukyu clade proved to correspond to L. scaberulum, previously treated as a synonym of L. boninense. Molecular and morphological evidence strongly suggests that L. boninense is endemic to the Bonin Islands, and that L. scaberulum should be treated as a distinct species. Endemism of L. boninense on the oceanic islands may be result of allopatric speciation.

Primer sequences are provided for amplification of 21 microsatellite-containing loci in Sphagnum. Although these primers were developed for species in Sphagnum section Subsecunda, they amplify microsatellite loci in most species that have been tested across the genus Sphagnum. Results are described from a survey of genetic variation in three species of Sphagnum collected in China: S. junghuhnianum in section Acutifolia, and S. palustre and S. imbricatum in section Sphagnum. Six and eight multilocus genotypes were detected within one population each of S. junghuhnianum and S. palustre, respectively. Four populations of S. imbricatum were sampled; they vary substantially in allele frequencies and in the amount of genetic diversity detected; overall, approximately 40% of the genetic variation sampled within S. imbricatum could be attributed to differentiation among populations. Microsatellite profiles indicate that S. palustre gametophytes are diploid whereas those of S. junghuhnianum and S. imbricatum are haploid.

Five moss species were found in the high intertidal zone of salt marshes in Nova Scotia, eastern Canada. This is the first report of bryophytes from salt marshes from North America. In each of the salt marshes where mosses occurred, one to three moss species occurred in monospecific or mixed species assemblages. Campylium stellatum and Bryum capillare were the most common species, followed by Didymodon rigidulus, Mnium hornum and Amblystegium serpens in decreasing abundance. All mosses were present below the litter line and occurred in association with Juncus arcticus and J. gerardii, although some collections were also made in association with Spartina pectinata and S. patens. The mosses were exposed in situ to seawater of > 20 ppt. In a laboratory experiment, mats of C. stellatum were exposed to a range of salinities (0, 8, 16, 32 ppt); plants survived 24 h of immersion in seawater of 32 ppt followed by four days in which mats were fully saturated with seawater. There was a slight reduction in effective quantum yield of photosystem II (Φ_PSII ) in the 32 ppt treatment relative to 0 and 8 ppt. Following four subsequent days of desiccation, the full-seawater- and 16-ppt-treated plants had significant reduction in quantum yield. This experiment is consistent with field observations and shows considerable physiological tolerance to salinity in salt marsh mosses.

Two previously published molecular analyses of the Dicranaceae and related families that supported as a taxonomic entity the clade “Rhabdoweisiaceae” as a segregate of the Dicranaceae s.lat. were subjected to a nine-step statistical analysis. The first study did not well support the Rhabdoweisiaceae but, in combination with the second, reliable support was obtained demonstrating that Rhabdoweisiaceae are both monophyletic and not merely a basal branch of the Dicranaceae. Although such molecular conclusions may guide taxonomy, there is no satisfactory morphological definition of the Rhabdoweisiaceae, and that uncertainty may lead to a paraphyletic classification of the Dicranaceae to include Rhabdoweisiaceae as simply one or more basal lineages.

Genetic variation and gene flow is examined for Dicranum elongatum on the beach ridge system along the Hudson Bay Lowlands in Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. Samples were collected from 10 quadrats from each of 14 transects on the beach ridge crests and in the low-lying troughs between beach ridges. Seven interspersed simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers produced 34 polymorphic loci in 37 samples of Dicranum elongatum. AMOVA showed evidence for population subdivision with 87% of the variation occurring within populations, but pairwise comparisons showed evidence for low levels of gene flow. Since sporophytes were not present in the coastal populations but are produced by plants further inland, the genetic variation in the coastal populations may be maintained by wind blown spores from sexually reproducing inland populations.

A total of 134 bryophyte species distributed among 92 genera and 45 families (32 liverworts, 2 hornworts and 100 mosses) are enumerated from the region of Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park. For the Department of Pasco, 29 of the 32 liverworts, one of the two hornworts and 82 of the 100 mosses represent new departmental records. Fifteen of the 112 bryophytes are new records to Peru.

Pohlia clavicaulis from Bolivia and Pohlia emergens from Argentina are reduced to synonymy under Pohlia chilensis (Mont.) A. J. Shaw. This Andean species, characterized by its polysetous condition, is also recorded for the first time from Africa.

Examination of the holotype of Orthotrichum rhytiore B. H. Allen reveals gametophytic characters which support the placement of the species in Ulota. The species is peculiar within the genus due to its unusual sporophyte morphology, and the occurrence of these sporophytic characters in Ulota is discussed. Ulota rhytiore (B. H. Allen) F. Lara, Garilleti, Albertos & Mazimpaka comb. nov. is the first known species of the genus in tropical America.

Plectocarpon hypogymniae sp. nov. is described from Hypogymnia bitteri in Siberia. It is distinguished from all known Plectocarpon species with the pigment Atra-brown by the particularly narrow ascospores, and from all species by the host.