ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 3900
Session = 21.3.1


AN OVERVIEW OF THE SPECIES OF MOSSES OF THE WORLD


Marshall R. Crosby, Missouri Botanical Garden


A survey of recent (post-1963, i.e. since Index Muscorum) taxonomic and floristic literature on mosses has produced a checklist of just under 13,000 recognized species worldwide. Each species has been assigned a level of knowledge rank, and about equal numbers are well known (revised taxonomically in some way since 1963, ca. 5,700 species, or 44% of the total) or insufficiently known (no new information since their pre-1963 publication, ca. 5,500, 43%). The remaining specis have received casual attention, ca. 1,000, 8%, or are newly published and not synonymized since 1963 (about 60% of those published), ca. 660, 4%. The ranking system should be useful in further characterizing the levels of floristic knowledge of various areas and in identifying groups that need further taxonomic attention. About 34,500 names fall into synonymy.


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