Tetraphidaceae
Tetrodontium brownianum, the only New Zealand representative member of the Tetraphidaceae, is a minute plant growing in deeply shaded and often moist crevices of siliceous rock. It is arguably the most dramatically disjunct of all the New Zealand mosses, being widespread but very rare through much of the northern hemisphere, and known in the southern hemisphere from only a small number of scattered high-elevation N.Z. localities. The Tetraphidaceae are a small family of only two genera, remarkable for their unique peristome of four large, narrowly triangular, unsegmented, and multicellular teeth. The structure of the peristome teeth is in sharp contrast to the articulated peristome teeth composed of fragmented cells found in the great majority of mosses. The family is taxonomically extremely isolated and is placed in its own subclass or class in modern classifications, suggesting that the disjunctive distribution is likely a very ancient one, and not a result of long-distance dispersal.
Additional Information
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Data last updated | 30 August 2017 |
| Metadata last updated | 11 August 2025 |
| Created | 25 May 2017 |
| Format | |
| License | CC-BY 4.0 (Attribution) |
| Datastore active | False |
| Has views | True |
| Id | aa62a4ca-f9de-40e3-acd3-df96f3b44253 |
| Package id | 42b1044e-a213-44c9-a405-5bf8273bd03a |
| Position | 0 |
| State | active |
| Url type | upload |
| Version |