Bucklandiella sudetica Bedn.

Bucklandiella sudetica (Funck) Bedn. -Ochyra & Ochyra

SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — Antarctica. West Antarctic Peninsula, Graham Coast, Wilhelm Archipelago, in the north-eastern part of Hovgaard Island, 65°07’14”S, 64°04’05”W, alt. 30 m a.s.l., on exposed rock surface above the moss bank and below the stand of Kiaeria pumila associated with Hymenoloma crispulum and Andreaea regularis, 25.II.2019, Parnikoza & Ivanets 300/19 (KRAM [B-257918]); same place and conditions, 12.II.2022, Parnikoza 03/22 (KRAM [B-262849]).

Grimmiaceae subfam. Racomitrioideae is represented by two genera in Antarctica which are segregates of the broadly conceived genus Racomitrium Brid. (Ochyra et al. 2003b; Bednarek-Ochyra et al. 2014; Sawicki et al. 2015). Of these, Racomitrium s.str. contains a single species, R. lanuginosum (Hedw.) Brid., which is exceedingly rare and so far recorded only from heated ground on the volcanic Deception Island (Lewis Smith 2005a, b; Ochyra et al. 2008b). In contrast, Bucklandiella Roiv. consists of no fewer than five species which are not prominent constituents of the moss flora in this biome, both in terms of frequency and cover (Ochyra et al. 2008a; Ellis et al. 2013a, 2017). Of all the species of this genus, B. sudetica is the most widely distributed, but generally infrequent and only quite abundant in places. One such area is the Graham Coast, where it is known from several sites on Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands, on Cape Tuxen, in the Berthelot Islands, Lahille Island and on the Barison Peninsula and its offshore island where it reaches its southernmost occurrence on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula (Ochyra et al. 2008a). The discovery of the species on Hovgaard Island is thus a remarkable extension of its geographical range in this region to the northern part of the Wilhelm Archipelago (Fig. 5). Additionally, B. sudetica is scattered in the Danco Coast including the Palmer Archipelago and frequent in the South Orkney Islands and in the South Shetland Islands, and occasional in the South Sandwich Islands. It was also once recorded on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula on the Wilkins Coast at latitude 69°32’S, its southernmost locality in the Southern Hemisphere (Ochyra et al. 2008a).

Bucklandiella sudetica is a bipolar species lacking any intermediate altimontane outposts in the tropical mountains. In the Southern Hemisphere it is a temperate oreophyte having a strongly disjunct panholantarctic geographical range, known from all continental landmasses including southern South America (Frisvoll 1986; Ochyra et al. 2015), South Africa (Bednarek-Ochyra 2018), SE Australia and Tasmania (Frisvoll 1986; Ellis et al. 2011a; Bednarek-Ochyra & Ochyra 2013b) and New Zealand (Ellis et al. 2011b). In addition, it penetrates into the austral polar regions, including subantarctic islands of South Georgia (Bell 1974), Marion Island (Ellis et al. 2014) and Heard Island (Ellis et al. 2013a) and the maritime Antarctic and Tristan da Cunha in the south-cool-temperate zone in the South Atlantic Ocean (Ellis et al. 2019).