Hymenolomataceae
Autoicous. Asexual reproduction by elliptic gemmae produced on branched filaments in leaf axils (not in Victoria). Tufts or cushions on soil (not in Victoria), rock or tree trunks (not in Victoria). Stems erect or ascending, simple or sparingly dichotomously branched, usually with short fastigiate branches, with rhizoids at base or in lower leaf axils; central strand present. Leaves lanceolate, straight to falcate, erect- to wide-spreading when moist, flexuose, crisped or contorted when dry; apex acuminate but blunt at very tip; costa single, subpercurrent (not in Victoria) to short-excurrent; margin entire, plane, narrowly recurved or erect to incurved near apex, without a distinct border; laminal cells quadrate to short-rectangular, papillose by linear striations on both surfaces, usually becoming longer and smooth toward base, sometimes oblate near margin, unistratose or bistratose in patches in apical half (not in Victoria); alar cells not (not in Victoria) or poorly differentiated (not in Victoria), or well-differentiated and quadrate to hexagonal, brown, reddish-brown to yellowish-hyaline and often enlarged. Acrocarpous. Seta smooth. Capsules immersed (not in Victoria), emergent (not in Victoria) or exserted, erect to inclined, symmetric, globose, ovoid, ellipsoid, obloid or cylindric, without an annulus or annulus occasionally indistinct and persistent (not in Victoria). Calyptra cucullate, smooth or papillose (not in Victoria), glabrous. Operculum oblique-rostrate. Peristome single with 15–17 entire or shallowly bifid endostome teeth, occasionally with remnants of exostome on outer base.
One genus occurring in polar and temperate regions throughout the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctica to temperate South America, New Zealand and south-east Australia, with around eight species (Ochyra et al. 2008); one species in Victoria.
Hymenoloma was previously included in Dicranoweisia. However, Hymenoloma is most closely related to Drummondia and Scouleria, and only distantly related to Dicranoweisia and its family the Rhabdoweisiaceae (Hedderson et al. 2004; Stech et al. 2012; Werner et al. 2013; Fedosov et al. 2016a, b). Hymenoloma is morphologically distinct from Drummodia and Scouleria, probably largely due to their different habitat preferences (i.e. Hymenoloma is saxocolous, Scouleria aquatic and Drummondia epiphytic), providing justification for placement in its own family (Fedosov et al. 2016a). However, a hint of their phylogenetic placement is provided by similar peristomes in Hymenoloma and Drummondia that comprise a single series of teeth that often has 17 teeth rather than the usual 16 observed in the majority of haplolepideous mosses (Fedosov et al. 2016a). Hymenoloma is distinguished from Dicranoweisia by having laminal cells with cuticular ridges, markedly differentiated perichaetial leaves, often incurved margins near the leaf apex, and by the absence of an annulus or if an annulus is present it is indistinct and not compound (Werner et al. 2013).
Fedosov, V.E.; Fedorova, A.V.; Fedosov, A.E.; Ignatov, M.S. (2016b). Phylogenetic inference and peristome evolution in haplolepideous mosses, focusing on Pseudoditrichaceae and Ditrichaceae s.l . *Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society * 181: 139–155.
Fedosov, V.E.; Fedorova, A.V.; Troitsky, A.V.; Bobrova, V.K.; Ignatov, M.S. (2016a). On the systematic position of Hymenoloma (Bryophyta). Arctoa 25: 119–130.
Hedderson, T.A.; Murray, D.J.; Cox, C.J.; Nowell, T.L. (2004). Phylogenetic relationships of haplolepideous mosses (Dicranidae) inferred from rps4 gene sequences. Systematic Botany 29: 29–41.
Ochyra, R.; Lewis Smith, R.I.; Bednarek-Ochyra, H. (2008). The Illustrated Moss Flora of Antarctica. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Stech, M.; McDaniel, S.F.; Hernández-Maqueda, R.; Ros, R.M.; Werner, O.; Muñoz, J.; Quandt, D. (2012). Phylogeny of haplolepideous mosses – challenges and perspectives. Journal of Bryology 34: 173–186.
Werner, O.; Rams, S.; Kučera, J.; Larraín, J.; Afonina, O.M.; Pisa, S.; Ros, R.M. (2013). New data on the moss genus Hymenoloma (Bryophyta), with special reference to H. mulahaceni. Cryptogamie, Bryologie 34(1): 13–30.