(2017). New national and regional bryophyte records, 52. Journal of Bryology: Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 285-304.

(2018). New national and regional bryophyte records, 57. Journal of Bryology. Ahead of Print.

Calypogeia is a genus in Pacific Asia that is difficult to classify taxonomically. These difficulties arise from (1) considering the presence of oil bodies as anatomical characters for taxonomic differentiation, (2) the wide occurrence of sibling, semicryptic and geographical vicariant taxa and (3) the inevitable need to organize new datasets for molecular genetic revision of the genus. The present study uses an integrative approach, including molecular genetic, morphological, chorological and ecological methods, to understand the taxonomy of the genus in Amphi-Pacific Asia. As a result, a set of new-to-science taxa was revealed, and the suite of morphological features necessary for reliable discrimination of the taxa was revised. These results are based on the study of a large set of ‘fresh’ collections suitable for molecular analysis and morphological comparison and include data on oil bodies. The most basal branch in Calypogeia s.l. is segregated into a new genus, Asperifolia. Descriptions of the new taxa and the key to Calypogeia in Vietnam are provided.

The taxonomic diversity center of Schistochilopsis is in East Asia, where the genus also shows the highest genetic diversity and morphological plasticity. The integrative survey of Schistochilopsis in East Asia was the main goal of the present account. Plant materials were obtained from recent collections made by authors in various parts of amphi-Pacific Asia; several types of specimens were also studied. The study includes phylogenetic reconstructions from nuclear ITS1,2, chloroplast trnL and trnG sequences, and anatomo-morphological, biogeographical, and taxonomical analyses. As a result, it was concluded that S. obscura should be transferred to Lophozia s. str. and S. grandiretis to the newly described genus Protochilopsis. Lophozia boliviensis was found to be part of the Andean–Sino-Himalayan taxon belonging to Schistochilopsis. The species status of S. hyperarctica and S. opacifolia was not confirmed. Substantial genetic variation is observed within S. incisa with possible cryptic sympatric distributed entities. The taxonomical section of the paper provides a discussion on the status, distinctive morphological traits, distribution, and ecology supplemented with the morphological description for poorly understood taxa. In the vast majority of cases, the illustrations and photographs made from the types and living material are provided.

Kamchatka, due to its position in hemiarctic northeast Asia on the migration pathways of taxa from Asia to America and vice versa, which has an insular geographical position and provides numerous pieces of evidence regarding current active volcanism, has a peculiar flora. The study of the liverwort flora of the southeastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula (South Kamchatka Nature Park), which, until now, has been very poorly explored, showed high taxonomic richness and some specificity due to volcanic evidence. In total, 132 species have been recorded in this sector of the “Pacific Ring of Fire”. This number is quite high compared to other floras of hemiarctic Asia. The influence of volcanism on flora formation is prominent due to the regular renewal of substrates, the appearance of specific habitats (for example, thermal water outlets), the displacement of vegetation belts, and ashfalls leading to the presence of extended spaces free of vegetation cover and is an area that is open for invaders. The altitudinal zonality, despite the difference of 2000 m in elevation, is not clearly expressed in the flora of the liverworts: arctomontane species descend far down the altitudinal profile, reaching the Betula ermanii forests. The “plantless” uppermost belt in the mountains, commonly described in floristic studies of vascular plants, is not actually free of plants if liverwort occurrences are considered. A number of species normally occupy unusual habitats in the studied flora due to contemporary volcanism evidence, e.g., sulfur-rich substrates.