edgepedia

Moss families and orders

11 articles

Bryales and allied orders

Bryales (syn. Eubryales) is an order of diplolepideous mosses in subclass Bryidae, class Bryopsida, including Bryaceae, Mniaceae, Bartramiaceae and allied families; molecular phylogenomics places it as an early split within the Bryidae.

Dicranales

Dicranales, an order of true mosses in subclass Dicranidae, historically included many families now shown polyphyletic; recent phylogenomics restricts it to Dicranaceae, Calymperaceae, Fissidentaceae, and Octoblepharaceae.

Fissidentaceae

Fissidentaceae, also called pocket moss family, is a moss family with the single genus Fissidens (450–500 species), defined by distichous leaves with pocket-like vaginant laminae; tropical diversity, Dicranales, three molecular subgenera since 2018.

Funariales

Funariales, an order of mosses (Bryopsida, Funariidae) with families Disceliaceae and Funariaceae; includes Funaria hygrometrica and Physcomitrella patens; marked by rapid radiation and sporophyte homoplasy.

Grimmiales

Grimmiales is an order of acrocarpous mosses within the Dicranidae, named for the genus Grimmia, including grimmias, bent-mosses, pincushions, and rock-bristles defined by a single-rank peristome of 16 teeth.

Hedwigiales

Hedwigiales (synonym Helicophyllales) is an order of acrocarpous mosses in Bryidae containing Hedwigiaceae, Rhacocarpaceae, and Helicophyllaceae, placed sister to Bartramiales at the base of the Bryidae.

Orthotrichales

Orthotrichales is an order of mosses (Bryophyta, Bryopsida) centered on the Orthotrichaceae, about 900 epiphytic species; includes yoke-, bristle-mosses, and pincushions; rbcL data suggest the order is polyphyletic.

Pleurocarpous moss orders outside Hypnales

The pleurocarpous moss orders outside Hypnales are the early-diverging lineages Hookeriales, Hypnodendrales, Ptychomniales, and Rhizogoniales, which split off before the enormous order Hypnales radiated and are central to research on the origins of pleurocarpy.

Pottiaceae

Pottiaceae, also called the Pottiaceae Hampe moss family, is the largest moss family by genera, about 1,400 species in 83 genera of Dicranidae, known for desiccation-tolerant mosses of harsh habitats and difficult taxonomy.

Rhizomnium dentatum

Rhizomnium dentatum is an extinct moss of the family Mniaceae, the first fossil species of the genus Rhizomnium, described in 2014 from five gametophyte fragments in Eocene Baltic amber and distinguished by shortly dentate leaf margins.

Splachnaceae

Splachnaceae, the dung moss family (Splachnum, Tetraplodon, Tayloria), is a moss family of about 73 species, unique among land plants for fly-dispersed sticky spores and growth on dung and carrion.