Seligeria acutifolia Lindb.

Osman, Imen Ben, Hugonnot, Vincent, Muller, Serge D. & Daoud-Bouattour, Amina, 2022, New bryophytes for Tunisia (North Africa). Part 2: other families, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (11), pp. 173-185 : 181

Seligeria acutifolia Lindb.

SPECIMEN EXAMINED. — Tunisia. High Tell, Beja Governorate, Delegation of Thibar: Djebba, with sporophytes, 36°28’15.20”N, 09°05’57.03”E; 620 m a.s.l. (site 2019-104), 13.IV.2019, Ben Osman & Hugonnot (TUN[TUN2019-131]).

REMARKS

Seligeria acutifolia was growing on cool, deeply shaded calcareous rocks in a recess at the base of a small cliff in a semi-wooded cultivated habitat (fig trees, pomegranate, etc.), along a small waterway. This is a famous site for tourists and shows obvious signs of habitat degradation (unauthorized dumping, water pollution, eutrophication, invasive plants species, etc.). In other areas, the species is present mainly on the bare surfaces of shaded, often north-facing, calcareous rocks. It occurs in wet habitats, at least in winter, but is not normally subject to dripping or running water (Corley & Blockeel 2014), which is identical to its setting in Tunisia.

This moss is characterized by its lanceolate-subulate leaves with entire margins arranged in more than three rows. The apices of the upper leaves are typically acute. The differentiated perichaetial leaves all reach the peristomate capsules and make the fertile plants look compact.

Seligeria acutifolia is a temperate European species. It is scattered through Europe ( Hodgetts & Lockhart 2020) but also occurs in North Africa ( Ros et al. 2013), Southwestern Asia ( Turkey; Kürschner & Frey 2020) and North America ( Vitt 2007). The first and only previous mention of the moss in Africa was in North Morocco by Jiménez et al. (2002). The predominantly holarctic genus Seligeria (Fedosov et al. 2017) is represented in Africa only by S. acutifolia , which is now known in the two localities in North Tunisia and North Morocco respectively. This suggests that this moss, while probably rare in North Africa, is likely to be present in Algeria.