Takakia is a genus of two species of mosses known from western North America and central and eastern Asia. The genus is placed as a separate family, order and class among the mosses. It has had a history of uncertain placement, but the discovery of sporophytes clearly of the moss-type firmly supports placement with the mosses.
Andreaeaceae is a family of mosses which includes two genera, Andreaea, containing about 100 species, and the genus Acroschisma. The Andreaeaceae prefer rocky habitats ranging from tropical to arctic climates, on which they form tufted colonies, typically with reddish to blackish shoots. The capsules lack the peristome mechanism and dehisce longitudinally to release the spores, resulting in a paper-lantern appearance.
The Bryopsida constitute the largest class of mosses, containing 95% of all moss species. It consists of approximately 11,500 species, common throughout the whole world.
Buxbaumia is a genus of twelve species of moss (Bryophyta). It was first named in 1742 by Albrecht von Haller and later brought into modern botanical nomenclature in 1801 by Johann Hedwig to commemorate Johann Christian Buxbaum, a German physician and botanist who discovered the moss in 1712 at the mouth of the Volga River. The moss is microscopic for most of its existence, and plants are noticeable only after they begin to produce their reproductive structures. The asymmetrical spore capsule has a distinctive shape and structure, some features of which appear to be transitional from those in primitive mosses to most modern mosses.
Orthotrichaceae is the only family of mosses in the order Orthotrichales. Many species in the family are epiphytic.
Grimmiales is an order of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae. It comprises four families: Grimmiaceae, Ptychomitriaceae, Seligeriaceae, and Saelaniaceae.
Sphagnopsida is a class of mosses that includes a single subclass Sphagnidae, with two orders. It is estimated it originated about 465 million years ago, along with Takakia. The order Sphagnales contains four living genera: Ambuchanania, Eosphagnum, and Flatbergium, which counts four species in total, and Sphagnum which contains the rest of the species. The extinct Protosphagnales contains a single fossil species.
Polytrichaceae is a common family of mosses. Members of this family tend to be larger than other mosses, with the larger species occurring in particularly moist habitats. The leaves have specialized sheaths at the base and a midrib that bears photosynthetic lamellae on the upper surface. These mosses are capable of sustaining high rates of photosynthesis in the presence of ample light and moisture. Unlike all other mosses, the hydroid-based vascular system of these mosses is continuous from stem to leaf and can extract water from the soil through transpiration. Species in this group are dioicous, though some are monoicous. In most species, the sporophytes are relatively large, the setae are rigid, and the calyptrae are hairy. Most species have nematodontous peristomes with 32–64 teeth in their sporangium; some early-diverging genera instead have a stopper mechanism, which consists of the apical section of the columella, that seals the mouth of the capsule shut prior to dehiscence.
Pottiales is an order of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae.
Seligeriaceae is a family of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae.
Andreaeobryum is a genus of moss with a single species Andreaeobryum macrosporum, endemic to Alaska and western Canada. The genus is placed as a separate family, order and class among the mosses.
Tetraphidaceae is a family of mosses. It includes only the two genera Tetraphis and Tetrodontium, each with two species. The defining feature of the family is the 4-toothed peristome.
Gigaspermaceae are a family of mosses in the monotypic order Gigaspermales. The order is placed in subclass Gigaspermidae of the class Bryopsida. They were previously placed in subclass Funariidae.
Timmia is a genus of moss. It is the only genus in the family Timmiaceae and order Timmiales. The genus is named in honor of the 18th-century German botanist Joachim Christian Timm.
Fissidentaceae is a family of haplolepideous mosses (Dicranidae) in the order Dicranales, with a single genus, Fissidens. It was formerly placed in the now-obsolete order Fissidentales.
Neosharpiella is a genus of moss containing two species in the family Bartramiaceae. The type species, Neosharpiella aztecorum, grows in alpine regions of central Mexico, while the other species, Neosharpiella turgida, has been found in Bolivia and Ecuador.
Ptilium crista-castrensis, the knights plume moss or ostrich-plume feathermoss, is a moss species within the family Pylaisiaceae, in the class Bryopsida, subclass Bryidae and order Hypnales.
Calliergon cordifolium is a species of moss in the Calliergonaceae family, commonly known as the calliergon moss or heart-leaved spearmoss. The species is abundant in the right habitat, and grows in marshes and wet woodland, especially woodland of alder (Alnus) or willow (Salix), as well as around streams, ditches and pools. The species grows in tufts among other moss species. Calliergon cordifolium requires a wet environment to grow, and often grows completely submerged in water. It typically prefers lowland, but has been recorded as high as 910 metres (1,000 yd) above sea level in Inverness, Scotland. The species has a circumpolar Boreo-temperate distribution. It is found throughout Europe. It has been recorded in north and central Asia, as well as Turkey and Japan, throughout North America and in New Zealand.
Ptychomitriaceae is a family of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae.
William Russel Buck is an American bryologist.
