''Wardia'' is a monotypic
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
mosses in the subclass
Dicranidae
The Dicranidae are a widespread and diverse subclass of mosses in class Bryopsida, with many species of dry or disturbed areas. They are distinguished by their spores; the peristome Peristome (from the Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about' ...
; it contains only the species ''Wardia hygrometrica'', "an aquatic moss endemic to the Western Cape province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
."
[Hedderson, Terry A., Cymon J. Cox, & J. George Gibbins. 1999. Phylogenetic Relationships of the Wardiaceae (Musci); Evidence from 18s rRNA and rps4 Gene Sequences. ''The Bryologist'' 102 (1): 26-31.] It is the only
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
moss family in South Africa.
As it is an aquatic moss, it was first classified in the
Fontinalaceae (and in the
order of
Isobryales), but molecular studies have shown that it is more closely related to the
Dicranaceae
Dicranaceae is a family of haplolepideous mosses (Dicranidae) in class Bryopsida. Species within this family are dioicous
Dioicy () is a sexual system where archegonia and antheridia are produced on separate gametophytes. It is one of the t ...
.
The genus name of ''Wardia'' is in honour of
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791 – 4 June 1868 in St Leonard's, Sussex) was an English doctor who popularised a case for growing and transporting plants which was called the Wardian case.
Biography
Ward was born in London to Stephen Smith W ...
(1791–1868), who was an English doctor.
The specific epithet ''hygrometrica'' refers to the hygroscopic nature of the seta (stalk).
[
The genus was ]circumscribed
In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius.
Not every polyg ...
by William Henry Harvey
William Henry Harvey, FRS FLS (5 February 1811 – 15 May 1866) was an Irish botanist and phycologist who specialised in algae.
Biography
Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father ...
and William Jackson Hooker in Companion Bot.
Mag. 2 on page 183 in 1837.
Description
It forms small to large, yellow-green or usually blackish green mats. The stems are 15-80 mm long and black below when old. The stems branch irregularly above the basal part (stipe). The leaves are evenly spaced, spreading to erect-appressed when dry, although variable in shape and length, they are generally broadly elliptical and up to 2.2 mm long. The leaf cells are narrow and thick-walled. The midrib of the leaf is extremely variable: ranging from absent, present only in the leaf base, discontinuous and present only at the apex and base, or strong throughout. The cells at the basal margins of the leaf (alar cells - which control the leaf's movement) are strongly differentiated, enlarged and inflated, hyaline to yellowish.[
]
Habitat
It grows on rocks, either submerged or in splash-zones of fast-flowing mountain streams and waterfalls.[
]
References
Dicranales
Monotypic moss genera
{{bryophyte-stub