Ephemerum serratum (Hedw.) Hampe, 1837

Papp, Beáta, Pantović, Jovana & Sabovljević, Marko S., 2019, Additions to the bryophyte flora of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (15), pp. 159-166 : 162

Ephemerum serratum (Hedw.) Hampe

SPECIMEN EXAMINED. — Republic of Northern Macedonia. From Ohrid-Otoševo road to Velestovo through the plateau, before the junction to Velestovo and Resen, acidic soil around a pond, 41°03’17.0”N, 20°51’22.8”E, 1470 m a.s.l., 18.X.2016, leg. Papp B. and Pantovi ć J. s.n., BP[BP 193723].

REMARKS

This species has scattered European reports ( Hodgetts 2015). It was rarely documented from the Balkans and this is the first record of the genus Ephemerum Hampe in the Republic of Northern Macedonia. It is known from Bulgaria where it is considered as DD ( Papp et al. 2018), Croatia ( Düll 1999; Alegro et al. 2014) and Montenegro ( Sabovljević et al. 2008), but possibly overlooked across SE Europe due to its minute size, seasonal appearance and controversial taxonomic status. In the rest of Mediterranean areas, it is known from Corsica, France, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain and Turkey ( Ros et al. 2013; Hodgetts 2015). Some authors included it in E. stoloniferum (Hedw.) L.T. Ellis and M.J. Price (syn. E. serratum auct . non (Hedw.) Hampe in the traditional sense).

The specimen is characterized by the possession of finely papillose spores (40-70 µm in diameter), with an external hyaline veil ( Price 2011). After the typification by Ellis & Price (2015), E. serratum became the earliest valid name for the entity, most frequently referred to as E. minutissimum with the above mentioned characters, while Phascum stoloniferum Hedw. provides the earliest available epithet for the moss presently referred to by European authors as E. serratum . The checklists of Ros et al. (2013) and Hodgetts (2015) still use the earlier nomenclature.