Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis Ochyra

Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis (Müll.Hal.) Ochyra

SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — Antarctica. West Antarctic Peninsula, Danco Coast, Graham Passage region, Murray (Bluff) Island, 64°23’41.35”S, 61°29’47.72”W, abundant on wet rock on a vegetated point in the bryophyte carpet and mat subformation, 30.I.2020, Parnikoza 3/20 (KRAM [B-258875]); Graham Coast, Hovgaard Island, north-eastern oasis, 65°7’15.00”S, 64°4’7.00”W, in the depression on moss bank 12.II.2022, Parnikoza 08/22 (KRAM [B-262843]); Barison Peninsula, Waugh Mountain, 65°30’42.53”S, 64°05’00.49”W, on wet rocks in the bryophyte carpet and mat subformation, 25.II.2020, Parnikoza 15/20 (KRAM [B-258887]).

Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis is a hydrophytic moss usually growing in abundance in constantly wet or moist habitats including dripping rock faces, wet soil and humus in crevices, depressions and cracks on barren rocks, margins of streams and melt water channels, pools and lakes, as well as swamps on level or gently sloping ground. It is one of the principal components in the bryophyte carpet and mat subformation, most often growing together with Sanionia georgicouncinata (Müll.Hal.) Ochyra & Hedenäs (Ochyra et al. 2008a; Loisel et al. 2017). Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis is a widespread species and its more or less continuous range extends from the South Orkney Islands to the Graham Coast on the west side of Antarctic Peninsula, with two highly isolated stations on the Fallières Coast in the northern part of Marguerite Bay where it reaches its southernmost locality on the Line Islands east of Adelaide Island at latitude 67°55’S. It is common and most abundant in the South Orkney Islands and in the South Shetland Islands as well as in the Palmer Archipelago off the Danco Coast, particularly on the southern coast of Anvers Islands and its offshore islands. On the mainland northern Antarctic Peninsula W. fontinaliopsis is widely scattered and localised (Figs 12; 13). It is known merely from a single station on the Davis Coast and from seven localities on the Danco Coast, of which only three are situated on the mainland and four on islands lying off the coast, including the site recorded for the first time in the present account on Murray Island (Fig. 12). The species is relatively less abundant on the Graham Coast where it is known from 13 localities (Fig. 13). Of these, only four are located on the mainland including Rasmussen Point, Cape Tuxen, Takaki Promontory and Waugh Mountain on Barison Peninsula. The latter is a newly recorded station and is the southernmost known locality of this species on the mainland Antarctic Peninsula. The remaining locations of W. fontinaliopsis are from the off-lying islands including Booth (Wandel) Island, the Argentine Islands (Uruguay Island, Corner Islands, Galindez Island, Black Island), Green Island in the Berthelot Islands group, Lahille Island, Hook Island in the Biscoe Islands group and Fish Island (Fig. 13).

Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis is a critical taxon which needs careful taxonomic studies with use of molecular analyses based on sequencing DNA. Hedenäs (2011) considered this species to be conspecific with the Holarctic W. pseudostraminea (Müll. Hal.) Tuom. & T.J.Kop. on the basis of examination of the very limited Antarctic material from King George Island. Definitive taxonomic conclusions should be based upon the investigation of the material from the whole geographical range of W. fontinaliopsis in the Southern Hemisphere. At present it is considered as a subantarctic-antarctic species having a disjunct circumpolar range with maximum occurrence on subantarctic South Georgia and in the northern maritime Antarctic with a limited penetration to the cool-temperate zone in Tierra del Fuego (Ochyra & Matteri 2001; Ochyra et al. 2002). It occurs in the Prince Edward Islands and Îles Kerguelen in the Kerguelen biogeographical province in the Subantarctic (Ochyra et al. 2002) and in the South Island of New Zealand (Ochyra et al. 2008a), the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island in the south-cool-temperate zone south of New Zealand (Ellis et al. 2010). The taxonomic clarification needs also the reassessment of the status of W. pseudostraminea itself because Hypnum pseudostramineum Müll.Hal., the basionym of this name, has not hitherto been lectotypified or thoroughly taxonomically assessed. Until these issues are resolved, the taxonomic status of W. fontinaliopsis outlined in studies from the Southern Hemisphere (Ochyra & Matteri 2001; Ochyra et al. 2008a) is retained.