Classification
Class
Bryatae
Family
Saulomataceae W.R.Buck, C.J.Cox, A.J.Shaw & Goffinet
 Subordinate Taxa
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Sauloma (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. Suppl. 1–2: 116 (1859)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Hookeria sect. Sauloma Hook.f. & Wilson in Wilson, Bot. Antarct. Voy. II (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part II, 122 (1854)
Type Taxon:
Sauloma tenella (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt.
Etymology:
The generic name is derived from saulos (Greek: soft) and “presumably alludes to the soft, delicate appearance of Sauloma tenella” (Meagher 2011).
 Description

Plants medium-sized, soft, white- or yellow-green, not iridescent, forming rather dense erect or less often pendent mats. Stems sparsely branched, mostly weakly erect. Leaves symmetric, uniform in size throughout shoot, erect-spreading when moist, oblong to ovate-lanceolate, mostly obtuse and strongly reflexed at apex, very weakly bordered, mostly entire. Costae absent or very weak and double. Upper laminal cells smooth, linear-rhomboid, porose. Gemmae fusiform and axillary.

Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves differ from vegetative leaves only by size. Setae lateral, straight, smooth, mostly red-brown; capsules inclined to horizontal, symmetric, ovoid or elongate-ovoid, papillose when mature and dry; operculum high-conic. Peristome teeth brownish-yellow, linear-lanceolate, furrowed, densely and finely cross-striate, with high lamellae and laterally projecting trabeculae; endostome yellowish, finely papillose, with a moderately high basal membrane; segments well developed, perforate; cilia absent. Calyptra mitrate, naked. Spores 1-celled, variable in size.

 Taxonomy

A genus of fewer than 5 species, occurring in Australasia and South America. According to Streimann (2000) the genus also occurs in south-east Asia and east Africa. The type species occurs in N.Z.

Matteri (1972) has reviewed the occurrence of the genus in southern South America, from whence only S. tenella is known. Streimann (2000) likewise considered that only S. tenella occurred in Tasmania and mainland Australia. Dixon (1927, p. 279) included Sauloma in his key to the genera of Hookeriaceae, but inexplicably failed to discuss the genus further.

Buck (1987) placed the monotypic Bolivian genus Pulvinella in synonymy here, while rejecting Crosby’s (1974) earlier placement of Achrohypnella Herzog (a monotypic and poorly known Chilean genus) in synonymy. Achrohypnella and Sauloma are retained as separate genera by Matteri (1972), presumably at least partly due to their difference in sexuality.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
Number of species in New Zealand within Sauloma (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt.
CategoryNumber
Indigenous (Non-endemic)1
Total1
 Excluded Taxa

Hypnum amiantum Stirt. in Paris is a nom. nud. Material so-named is in the Buchanan Herbarium (WELT M005831) and is S. tenella. Its exact provenance is obscure.

Plagiothecium helvolum Müll.Hal. in Paris is a nom. nud. based on R. Helms 12 (CHR 573778), probably from near Greymouth. The Helms collection is S. tenella.

 Bibliography
Buck, W.R. 1987: Taxonomic and nomenclatural rearrangement in the Hookeriales with notes on West Indian taxa. Brittonia 39: 210–224.
Crosby, M.R. 1974: Toward a revised classification of the Hookeriaceae (Musci). Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory 38: 129–141.
Dixon, H.N. 1927: Studies in the bryology of New Zealand, with special reference to the herbarium of Robert Brown. Part V. Bulletin, New Zealand Institute 3(5): 239–298.
Fife, A.J. 2017: Saulomataceae. In: Breitwieser, I.; Wilton, A.D. (ed.) Flora of New Zealand – Mosses. Fascicle 33. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.
Goffinet, B.; Buck, W.R.; Shaw, A.J. 2009: Morphology, anatomy, and classification of the Bryophyta. In: Goffinet, B.; Shaw, A.J. (ed.) Bryophyte Biology. Edition 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 55–138.
Matteri, C.M. 1972: Las Hookeriaceae (Musci) Andino-Patagonicas, II. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" e Instituto Nacional de Investigacion de las Ciencias Naturales : Ciencias Botanicas 4(2): 243–280.
Mitten, W. 1859: Musci Indiae Orientalis; an Enumeration of the Mosses of the East Indies. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Supplement to Botany 1–2: 1–171.
Streimann, H. 2000: Taxonomic studies on Australian Hookeriaceae (Musci) 3. The genera Calyptrochaeta, Daltonia, Hookeriopsis and Sauloma. Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory 88: 101–138.
Vitt, D.H. 1984: Classification of the Bryospida. In: Schuster, R.M. New Manual of Bryology. Hattori Botanical Laboratory, Nichinan. 696–759.
Wilson, W. 1854 ("1855"): Musci. In: Hooker, J.D. The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, in the years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part II. Flowerless plants. Lovell Reeve, London. 57–125.