Myuriaceae
Dioicous or rarely phyllodioicous (not in Victoria). Asexual reproduction by filamentous gemmae borne on stem rhizoids (not in Victoria) or leaf bases (not in Victoria). Tufts or mats on soil (not in Victoria), rocks, logs and tree bases. Stems creeping to ascending, regularly to irregularly pinnately or bipinnately branched, with rhizoids on ventral sides where in contact with substrate; paraphyllia absent; pseudoparaphyllia absent (not in Victoria) or present and foliose; central strand present. Leaves arranged around the stem and facing all directions to complanate, those of stems differentiated from those on branches, straight to curved, erect (not in Victoria) to erecto-patent when moist, scarcely altered when dry; base often cordate and decurrent; apex acuminate; costa absent (not in Victoria) or short, double and faint; margin entire (not in Victoria), serrulate or serrate, plane, incurved or recurved at base, without a border; laminal cells linear, becoming shorter near base, smooth, prorulate or prorate; alar cells scarcely or well-differentiated, multi-tiered, quadrate to rectangular, sometimes yellow (not in Victoria) to yellow-brown (not in Victoria), not inflated. Pleurocarpous. Capsules erect (not in Victoria), inclined or horizontal, symmetric or curved, exserted, operculate, with an annulus. Calyptra cucullate, smooth (not in Victoria) or weakly prorulose at apex, pilose or glabrous (not in Victoria). Operculum conic (not in Victoria), conic-apiculate or rostrate. Peristome double and alternate; exostome of 16 entire teeth; endostome of a low basal membrane without segments (not in Victoria) or of 16 segments, with a high basal membrane; cilia present or absent (not in Victoria).
On all continents except Antarctica, with six genera and 31 species, but most diverse in East Asia and Malesia; one genus and species in Victoria.
Ctenidium, which is the sole genus of this family in Victoria, was traditionally included in the Hypnaceae (e.g. Schofield et al. 2014) and has been more recently shifted to the Hylocomiaceae (Goffinet & Buck 2004). However, phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences from all genomic compartments suggest that this genus is closely related to the Myuriaceae (Arikawa et al. 2008; Cox et al. 2010; Huttunen et al. 2012; Kučera et al. 2019; Martins et al. 2021). Consequently, it is placed in the Myuriaceae here following recommendation of Martins et al. (2021). Ctenidium, like Myurium, is dioicous with dwarf males (Martins et al. 2021), has foliose pseudoparaphyllia, and has leaves with double costae, serrate margins and cordate bases.
Arikawa, T.; Tsubota, H.; Deguchi, H.; Nishimura, N.; Higuchi, M. (2008). Phylogenetic analysis of the family Hypnaceae based on rbcL gene sequences, in Mohamed, H., Baki, B.B., Nasrulhaq-Boyce, A. & Lee, P.K.Y. (eds), Bryology in the New Millennium, pp. 215–225. University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
Cox, C.J.; Goffinet, B.; Wickett, N.J.; Boles, S.B.; Shaw, A.J. (2010). Moss diversity: A molecular phylogenetic analysis of genera. Phytotaxa 9: 175–195.
Goffinet, B.; Buck, W. R. (2004). Systematics of the Bryophyta (Mosses): from Molecules to a Revised Classification. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 98: 205–239.
Huttunen, S. et al. (2012). Disentangling knots of rapid evolution: origin and diversification of the moss order Hypnales. Journal of Bryology 34: 187–211.
Kučera, J.; Kuznetsova, O.I.; Manukjanová, A.; Ignatov, M.S. (2019). A phylogenetic revision of the genus Hypnum: Toward completion. Taxon 68: 628–660.
Martins, S.; Sim-Sim, M.; Stech, M. (2021). The Macaronesian endemic moss Andoa berthelotiana (Myuriaceae, Bryophyta): Phylogenetic relationships and cryptic speciation. Nova Hedwigia 112: 335–357.
Schofield, W.B.; Buck, W.R.; Ireland, R.R. (2014). Hypnaceae, in Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds), Flora of North America, vol. 28: Bryophyta, part 2, pp. 515–568. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
