FloraOfNewZealand-Mosses-30-Fife-2016-Pilotrich ...

The Pilotrichaceae are traditionally placed in the order Hookeriales. Historically the Pilotrichaceae have been treated as a small family with a type genus speciose in the Neotropics and predominantly epiphytic. The family concept has been broadened considerably in recent decades to include up to 21 genera. The family remains richest in the Neotropics, with fewer taxa occurring in western Africa, and fewer still occurring as outliers in Asia and the Pacific. Only Cyclodictyon blumeanum is recorded in the New Zealand Botanical Region, having been relatively recently discovered on the Region’s northernmost outpost, the Kermadecs archipelago. On Raoul I. it forms waterlogged pendent curtains on shaded and dripping rock outcrops, or is submerged in springs. This species is unusual in the N.Z. regional flora by having well-developed double costae. No sporophytes have been recorded here. Cyclodictyon blumeanum is also known from a few localities in eastern mainland Australia, Pacific Is, and eastern Asia.