FloraOfNewZealand-Mosses-45-Fife-2019-Funariaceae

The Funariaceae are a family of soil-inhabiting “weeds”. Six genera and 12 species are accepted in the New Zealand flora. Collectively the family is cosmopolitan in distribution, with most tropical species occurring at higher elevations. Funaria hygrometrica, which thrives on burnt mineral soils, is one of the most widely recognised mosses worldwide, in part because of its weedy nature, and in part because it is often used as an example of a “typical” moss in introductory botany textbooks and classes. The largest genera in the family, however, are Entosthodon (c. 60–70 species worldwide, six in N.Z.) and the very poorly understood genus Physcomitrium (probably more than 50 species worldwide, only two in N.Z.). The Funariaceae are unusual among mosses in having a relatively uniform gametophyte morphology and a comparatively high degree of sporophytic variability. The gametophytes are usually autoicous and have large, thin-walled, and smooth laminal cells, and characteristic perigonial paraphyses with globose to pyriform terminal cells. Sporophytically, some members have morphologically complex double peristomes while others have extremely small, globose capsules that lack both peristomes and differentiated opercula. All capsules, however, possess unique stomata consisting of an elongate pore in a single guard cell (termed “funariaceous” here). In species where it occurs, the double peristome is distinctive in having endostome segments opposite the exostome teeth, rather than alternating with them. The morphologically highly reduced Physcomitrella patens (which probably does not occur in N.Z.) has been the subject of a large research effort and a very large specialised literature over the past 25 or more years because of its value in the study of gene expression. For much of the 20th century the prevailing view of the evolution of the Funariaceae was one of progressive simplification of the sporophyte. More recent molecular studies suggest that evolutionary patterns in the family are more complex, with hybridisation (often at the inter-generic level) and homoplasy (or “convergent evolution”) in the sporophyte playing important roles. This has greatly modified both generic and species concepts, and such taxonomic changes are likely to continue into the future.