Richard H Zander

Missouri Botanical Garden · Science and Conservation

The genus Anaschisma includes four species in America, of which, A. lilliputanum is recorded for the first time to the Argentina. The specimens were analyzed morphologically using conventional techniques for Pottiaceae (Bryophyta). A distribution map of the genus, description and illustration in SEM and LM of the species are provided. Comments and...

Introduction The moss genus Algaria currently comprises a single species known only from the type locality. During recent bryological surveys of remnant Overberg Renosterveld patches, plants were collected that clearly belong to this genus but differ from the only known species in several critical respects. Here, we describe these as a new species....

Introduction During examination of assorted mosses sent for identification, a specimen of Vinealobryum (Pottiaceae) from Iceland was found to be unlike other species of the genus. Methods Standard microscopical analysis was carried out, accompanied by consultation of published literature and re-examination of permanent microscope slides made durin...

Ozobryum G. L. Merr., once synonymized with Molendoa Lindb., is recognized as a good genus of Pottiaceae based on evaluation of it as a distinctive dissilient genus. Populations from Mexico are described as a new species, O. mexicanum R. H. Zander. The species Anoectangium warburgii Crundw. & M. O. Hill is transferred to Ozobryum. The genus is synt...

Anaschisma, a new genus of Pottiaceae, is distinguished from both Tortella and Trichostomum by the caducous, cleistocarpous capsule, and from Aschisma by capsule dehiscence irregular, not circumscissle. It is similar to Aschisma in the denticulate, weakly bordered cauline leaves, broadest at the base, and tendency to secund leaf stance. Four specie...

A new moss species, Hyophila marginata, from Peru is distinctive but intermediate in morphology between H. involuta and the rare West Indian Teniolophora fluviatilis. Teniolophora is synonymized with the earlier name Hyophila. The difference between Hyophila and Plaubelia is clarified with a key, and Quaesticula is synonymized with Plaubelia. New c...

The moss Exobryum fragilicuspis (Broth.) R.H.Zander is reported from the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada, in Jasper National Park. The species is synonymous with several previously recognized taxa, including Didymodon fragilicuspis Broth., Didymodon gaochienii B.C.Tan & Y.Jia, Didymodon murrayae Otnyukova, and Vinealobryum murrayae (Otnyukova) R...

Evolutionary leverage is the average of total transformational trait changes among species in a dissilient (radiative) genus or larger, integral taxonomic group. It is proposed as a measure of evolutionary success in modern environments. Comparing evolutionary leverage aids in measuring potential evolutionary coherency and ecological success among...

Noteworthy new records of 48 species of mosses and liverworts, with notes on their taxonomy, distribution and ecology

Two new combinations are presented to correct published names in the Pottiaceae and the related family Streptotrichaceae.

The recently published nom. nov. Molendoa antiqua R.H. Zander (2019: 335) is a superfluous name. If Anoectangium handelii Schiffn. (1913: 490) is a synonym then the correct name should be Molendoa handelii since that name has priority and the epithet is not already taken in Molendoa. The appropriate combination in Molendoa is therefore made here. T...

"RUNNING SIGMAS CALCULATOR - Provides running average, absolute deviation, and running standard deviation, both sample-wise and total data, for 50 data points (copy and paste for larger data set)s. Richard H. Zander, Missouri Botanical Garden, July 13, 2020. Res Botanica Technical Report 2020-08-2. 2020. "

A species of Pottiaceae (Bryophyta) from northwestern China, northern India and central Myanmar was evaluated as a remnant of an ancient lineage. Macroevolutionary analysis demonstrated its isolated status against other species in similar, morphologically much-reduced genera of Pleuroweisieae, occasioning the description of a new genus, Eobryum R.H...

A new combination in the hepatic genus Barbilophozia is made for a subspecies of Neoorthocaulis (Scapaniaceae) to fit the conservative classification being used for the Flora of North America. Justification is given for avoiding names generated in new molecular classifications.

Pachylomidium, a new genus in the Pottiaceae, including the new species P. pacificum, is described from Guam. Two additional Asian species of Barbula are transferred. The special character of the Guam climate and the broad range of the genus in the Asian tropics and subtropics is discussed.

The analytic orientation of this paper is intended as a replacement for the antiquated but still prevalent phylogenetic inferential models and techniques of the late 20th century that are focused entirely on shared descent. Serial descent, that is, progenitor to descendant, may occur at the species or infraspecies level. In molecular systematics, s...

Three species of Pottiaceae (Bryophyta) of limited distribution worldwide are reported for hyperoceanic northwestern North America. The Asian Pseudosymblepharis angustata is a genus and species new to North America from Alaska. Oxystegus daldinianus, previously known from Europe and the Southern Appalachians in the U.S.A., is reported as new to Can...

Molecular analysis has several problems including (1) small samples, (2) radiation of molecular strains or races that separately generate their own species-level lineages, (3) all problems associated with cladistics analysis done using morphological data, (4) conflicting studies, (5) reuse of data contributing to small samples and absence of experi...

During recent botanical surveys undertaken in South America (Uruguay and Paraguay) some of the samples collected were identified as Tortella fruchartii (Müll. Hal.) R. H. Zander and T. lilliputana (Müll. Hal. ex G. Roth) R. H. Zander, two autoicous species of the genus with distribution area restricted to the New World. The former is re-described b...

Methods of macroevolutionary systematics as recently modified are explained and applied to the genus Anoectangium Schwägr. (Pottiaceae) in hyperoceanic areas of coastal northwestern North America. It was revealed that this area harbored species like those reported for the Himalayan region of northern India. Keys are provided for North American and...

The Second Edition expands on the use of macroevolutionary analysis in mitigation of the effects of severe Climate Change on ecosystems. Biological systematics is the key to understanding and modeling the mechanisms of the present climate and biodiversity crisis. Genera are the basic dynamic units of ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems have many dissili...

Anoectangium sikkimense (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta), a rare species known for China, India and Nepal, is reported from the U.S.A. in Alaska. This species, distinctive in the marginal crenulation of the shoulders of the shortly sheathing base, is new to the New World. A key is given to New World species of Anoectangium. Its serial evolutionary relations...

The Asian moss Didymodon constrictus (Mitt.) K.Saito is newly reported for North America from Alberta, Canada. The species features basally fragile flagellate branchlets, which when young are similar to bulbils. Following recent revisionary work, a combination in Geheebia Schimp. is provided and evolutionary relationships are discussed. Features of...

The Asian moss Didymodon constrictus (Mitt.) K.Saito is newly reported for North America from Alberta, Canada. The species features basally fragile flagellate branchlets, which when young are similar to bulbils. Following recent revisionary work, a combination in Geheebia Schimp. is provided and evolutionary relationships are discussed. Features of...

Biological systematics is the key to understanding and modeling the mechanisms of the present climate and biodiversity crisis. Genera are the basic dynamic units of ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems have many dissilient (radiative) genera. These genera each have a number of species or short lineages descendant from a core progenitor species. A new m...

Chapter 19: It is easy to use metaphor and analogy, and make principles and generalities hard-won in other fields apply to one’s own innocent study area. The only test for whether these geologic-time and dissilient-genera applications are valuable is to see if they work. That is, if they explain better and predict more accurately than does orthodox...

Evaluation of ecosystems using entropic macroevolutionary method — It is easy to use metaphor and analogy, and make principles and generalities hard-won in other fields apply to one's own innocent study area. The only test for whether these geologic-time and dissilient-genera applications are valuable is to see if they work. That is, if they explai...

The genus Ptychomitrium is represented in Brazil by four species, with Ptychomitrium standleyi being reported for the first time. Ptychomitrium standleyi is only known from the type material from Guatemala and here is reported to the Atlantic rainforest.

A species of mountainous regions of Latin America, Leptodontium stellatifolium, is reported from La Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. This is a major geographic range disjunction. The species is illustrated and described from La Réunion material, and its considerable variation across its range and within La Réunion is discussed. Explanations of i...

The new species, Hymenostylium townsendii, differs from H. xanthocarpum mainly in the longer, 4.5– 5 mm, very long-lanceolate to linear leaves that are often widest near the expanded base, long-acuminate and very narrowly acute leaf apex (20–30°), costa that is 6 cells across adaxially at midleaf and excurrent in a subulate short awn or mucro, and...

Oxystegus daldinianus (De Not.) Köckinger, O.Werner & Ros, a species recently identified from the Alps of central Europe, is reported as new to the New World from collections in North Carolina, U.S.A., with a key to species of the genus in North America. A refugial explanation is proffered for this montane disjunction. Species distinctions in Oxyst...

The widely distributed but rarely collected moss Weisiopsis nigeriana (Egun. & Olarinmoye) R.H.Zander is reported as new to Australia. The world range is reviewed, and an illustration given. Unique inflated rhizoids of bulging short cells filled with dense protoplasm and oil globules is an apparent mode of survival during dry periods.

A correct combination in Ardeuma R.H. Zander & Hedd., A. annotinum (Mitt. ex Dixon) R.H. Zander & Brinda, is provided for the species A. insigne (Dixon) R.H. Zander & Hedd., which is not the first name available at the species level. Distinctions between the genera Ardeuma and Hymenostylium are tabulated.

Evolutionary trees (caulograms) and phylogenetic cladograms for both morphological and molecular analyses of certain species in the moss genus Didymodon (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta) were compared. A new two-step macrosystematic (macroevolutionary systematics) method of calculating statistical support for both linear order and lineage direction of evolut...

The Old World Hymenostylium xanthocarpum, the generitype of Hymenostylium, was found to be unrelated to the widespread H. recurvirostrum and other species currently placed in the genus. Major distinguishing traits of H. xanthocarpum are the presence of a stem central strand, leaves broadest about midleaf and constricted just above the base, distal...

A general staining protocol for bryophytes is described, with exemplars of species of the family Pottiaceae (Bryophyta). The protocol assesses the color reaction to dilute potassium hydroxide, then to the addition of a mixture of dilute toluidine blue O and dilute ruthenium red. Colors are distinctive in various portions of plant anatomy. In additi...

Barbula amplexifolia (Mitt.) Jaeg. is reported from the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia as new to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and is found to be distinguishable from the very similar Barbula coreensis (Card.) Saito of eastern Asia.

Most standard taxonomic measurements in botany are linear, e.g., leaf or petal length, cell length and width, and spore, seed or trunk diameter. But the three spacial dimensions may be treated as linear, areal, and volumetric. If one uses a linear dimension to distinguish an important areal or volumetric difference between species, then resolution...

An outrageous book review in the journal Cladistics by A.V.Z. Brower of "Framework for Post-Phylogenetic Systematics" by R.H. Zander lacks understanding and collegial dignity. Examples of unpleasantries and of errors of fact and logic by the reviewer are noted here. And although I have attempted a light-hearted response, this indulgent and kindly r...

Investigation of caulistic macroevolution in an evolutionary tree often requires separate support measures for exemplar groups, and for the taxon they represent. A taxon may be actually or cryptically heterophyletic on a molecular tree. Congruence between branch order of morphological and molecular cladograms is not as important as is congruence be...

The Framework for Post-Phylogenetic Systematics reframes biological systematics to reconcile classical and cladistic schools. It combines scientific intuition and statistical inference in a new form of total evidence analysis developing a joint macroevolutionary process-based causal theory. Discrepancies between classical results and morphological...

The shared ancestral and serial transformative evolutionary relationships of the Didymodon s. lat. (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta) group of mosses is investigated. Decibans are used as coarse likelihoods for serial trait transformations in sequential Bayes analysis, here using morphology alone. In convergence analysis, theoretical adaptive radiations and n...

Classical systematists introduce evolutionary relationships into classification by identifying monophyly. The classical basis for determining monophyly as serial macroevolution of taxa is here put on a statistical basis. Clues to adaptive or relatively neutral transformative radiation are used in grouping ancestral species and descendant species. S...

Classical systematists infer evolutionary monophyly by using clues to adaptive or relatively neutral transformative radiation. If such clues are on a logarithmic scale they may be added to yield a probability for direction of evolution of one taxon to another. Such logarithmic clues are the decibans used by World War II code breakers in England. Fo...

alpestris (Thed.) Schimp. Contributor: L. Thouvenot Andorra: Encamp, Ensagents, 42u319070N, 1u389410E, 2520 m a.s.l., on the top of granitic rock in alpine meadow, 17 July 2006, leg. L. Thouvenot 3086 (BCB 58238). According to Casas (2005) this species was pre-viously unrecorded in Andorra (Eastern Pyrenees) although it is known in the neighbouring...

Syntrichia christophei Ochyra et R.H. Zander is new to science from Îles Kerguelen in the Subantarctic. The species is described and illustrated and its affinities are discussed. It is closely related to S. saxicola (Cardot) R.H. Zander but it is easily distinguished by its larger leaf size, larger distal laminal cells, longer awn at the leaf apex,...

Précis — The fundamental premise in phylogenetics is that two of every three taxa are more closely related evolutionarily because of pseudoextinction, or demise of a shared ancestral species upon speciation. Any instance of paraphyly implies no pseudoextinction and two cladogram nodes that are the same taxon. An instance of paraphyly then cannot be...

The moss Anoectangium thomsonii Mitt. is widely distributed in almost all the bryo-geographical regions of the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand state of India, where it grows luxuriantly especially on calcareous rocks and dry and arid places. Although this species has earlier been listed from this region, the present study is rst attempt...

This paper asserts that modern phylogenetics introduces biases into both evolutionary understanding and classification that are the same as those expected from “creation science.”

A new species of Crossidium (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta), C. karoo, is described for South Africa. It uniquely differs from congeners in tight encapsulation of the photosynthetic filaments by the clasping upper lamina.

A new genus, Picobryum (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta), including one new species, Picobryum atomicum, is described from the western Cape Province of South Africa. The new taxon is somewhat similar to Syntrichia gametophytically but differs in the trait combination: stem very short, central strand absent; leaves strongly reflexed to squarrose when moist, u...

Hymenostylium recurvirostrum var. insigne (Dix.) Bartr. is reported new to the New World from British Columbia. Hymenostylium recurvirostrum var. cylindricum (Bartr.) Zander is a new combination. A key to the varieties of H. recurvirostrum is given. Barbula amplexifolia (Mitt.) Jaeg. is reported new to British Columbia.

Systematics based solely on structuralist principles is non-science because it is derived from first principles that are inconsistent in dealing with both synchronic and diachronic aspects of evolution, and its evolutionary models involve hidden causes, and unnameable and unobservable entities. Structuralist phylogenetics emulates axiomatic mathema...

Two or more exemplars of the same taxon forming a nonmonophyletic group on a molecular tree may be viewed as representing surviving populations of a deep shared ancestral taxon, and if different species of the same genus, then theoretically phenotypically static remnants of punctuated equilibrium. That taxon may be mapped on a molecular cladogram a...

I here suggest that over the past 250 years of Linnaean taxonomy, heuristics have been developed, accumulated, and used to create classifications (the more modern based on evaluations of evolutionary relationships) that are fully successful when judged by consilient analyses using molecular data. Such classifications reflect the hierarchical nature...

Traditional taxa paraphyletic or polyphyletic on a molecular phylogenetic tree may be interpreted as populations of surviving ancestors that are evolutionarily static in expressed traits though labile in DNA traits used to track genetic continuity. In those cases in which re-evolution (convergence) of such taxa is deemed improbable, such heterophyl...

SUMMARY A new genus, Acaulonopsis (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta), including two new species, A. fynbosensis and A. eureka, is described from the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Together with the similarly much reduced pottiaceous genus Acaulon, Acaulonopsis is unique in the family with a very short seta and spherical capsule, which lacks the apicul...

A detailed description and illustrations of Saitobryum lorentzii from Argentina is presented. This species is distinguished by its obovate leaves, giving way to pluripapillose cells in the medial zone of upper lamina cells, capsule purple, cylindrical, eperistomate and neck poorly differentiated.

New to the Americas is Anoectangium handelii Schiffn., which differs significantly from A. aestivum (Hedwig) Mitt. by its small size, axillary propagula, and cauline leaves usually blunt and shorter than the perichaetial leaves. Previously, this species was known only from south-central Eurasia.

New to the Americas from California is Didymodon bistratosus J.-P. Hébrard & R. B. Pierrot, differing significantly from congeners by the deep red lower portions of the plant, and 2–3-stratose upper lamina. In California it was found on a sandstone boulder in a mesic oak woodland. Its range worldwide is restricted to California, the Iberian Peninsu...

The moss Didymodon tectorum (C. Müll.) Saito of Asia is newly reported for North America based on specimens previously reported as Didymodon reedii Robins. (a new synonym) and Didymodon brachyphyllus (Sull.) Zander, which remains a good species. A key to species of the Didymodon vinealis complex in North America is presented. Didymodon tectorum and...

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 sup...

The rare, North American, high plains moss, Molendoa ogalalensis (G. L. Smith) R. H. Zander, is newly recorded for stations in Sonora, Mexico.

Classification and biogeography should be informed by reliable phylogenetic reconstruction. This may be recovered from the mainly speculative literature by a nine-step protocol of critical methods, the “operative transform.” Piecemeal total evidence is attained by combining separately published support values for the same branch arrangement with Ba...

pdf document Electronic Journal history. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61418/1/ElectronicJournalsSolstice.pdf

Traditional taxa that are non-monophyletic (paraphyletic or polyphyletic) on a molecular phylogenetic tree may be interpreted as surviving ancestors that are evolutionarily static in expressed traits but accumulating DNA changes used to track genetic continuity. In cases in which re-evolution (convergence) of such taxa is deemed improbable, non-mon...

We describe Algaria nataliei, a new genus and species from the Worcester-Robertson Karoo region, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Particularly distinctive features of the new genus are the strongly dimorphic leaves with the upper toothed to laciniate-margined, apically notched on one side, and long-awned and the lower entire, weakly but distinc...

We describe Vrolijkheidia circumscissa as a new genus and species of Pottiaceae currently known only from the Worcester-Robertson centre in the succulent karoo biome of the Cape Floristic Region. The gametophyte of the new genus is distinguished by the combination of small plants with strap-shaped, bordered leaves red in KOH in which the costa has...

We describe Ludorugbya springbokorum, a new genus and species of Pottiaceae from the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. It is gametophytically distinct in the small plants with ovate-lanceolate to spathulate, redawned, plane-margined leaves that are red in KOH, usually bistratose in 1–2(–4) transverse rows at the insertion, with a differentiate...

We describe Triquetrella mxinwana, a new species presently known only from the winter rainfall area of South Africa. Within this region it is common in karroo and renosterveld, but it also occurs in fynbos. It differs from other Triquetrella species in the several low, bifid, papillae on each laminal cell, but is similar to the Australian Leptodont...

Zander, R.H. 2007. Neutralist evolution and strict monophyly ad- versely affect biodiversity study. Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 64(1): 107-108.

Recent discoveries of true Gymnostomum calcareum Nees & Hornsch. and G. viridulum Brid. in California, U.S.A., prompted a new look at the genus in America. Perichaetia borne laterally on short branches, perichaetial leaves strongly differentiated from the cauline, and bulging exothecial cells are critical new traits introduced here to distinguish b...

Typescript. Thesis (A.M.)--Duke University, 1967.

Plants dark green to black, small to large, often in dense turf. Stems erect, irregularly branched, bearing rhizoids at base; central strand absent. Leaves erect or secund, sometimes falcate-secund, short-to long-lanceolate or panduriform; costa absent or single or branched, narrow to broad, percurrent or ending before the apex; in section of unifo...

This is the Pottiaceae family of the first bryophyte volume of the Flora of North America north of Mexico, including Greenland. Four authors contributed to this floristic manual.

In the May 2006 issue of Bryological times, I discussed my experiments in developmental phylogenetics at the Missouri Botanical Garden that sought to uncover phylogenetically ancient morphological traits by application of various chemicals known to force expression (by opening the DNA chromatin structure) of silenced genes. At least some silencing...

Genomic studies have shown that evolution can be based on clusters of genes that may be silenced and reactivated much later. Thus, apparent phylogenetic homoplasy may sometimes represent a one-time developmental response to selection, involving many genes or gene clusters and one or more regulators, and as such may be called homoiology. Evidence fo...

New to the Americas is Anoectangium handelii Schiffn., which differs significantly from A. aestivum (Hedwig) Mitt. by its small size, axillary propagula, and cauline leaves usually blunt and shorter than the perichaetial leaves. Previously, this species was known only from south-central Eurasia. Copyright © 2005 by the American Bryological and Lich...