Classification
Class
Bryatae
Family
Mitteniaceae Broth.
 Subordinate Taxa
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Mittenia Lindb., Öfvers. Kongl. Vetensk.-Akad. Förh. 19: 606 (1863)
Type Taxon:
Mittenia plumula (Mitt.) Lindb.
Etymology:
The genus is named in honour of the great 19th century English bryologist William Mitten. Mitten’s influence upon 19th century bryology is difficult to exaggerate. His most influential works were Musci Indiae Orientalis (1859b) and Musci Austro-Americani (1869). Mitten also published an important work on the mosses of N.Z. and Tasmania (1859a), a catalogue of Australian mosses (1882), and studied the mosses of many other parts of the world, including regions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. He also contributed the hepatic treatments in J.D. Hooker’s Flora Novae-Zelandiae and Flora Tasmaniae.
 Taxonomy

Mittenia is a monotypic genus with the characteristics of M. plumula.

Mittenia is one of Australasia’s bryological curiosities, because of its aberrant peristome and the "luminescent" quality of its sometimes persistent protonema. Stone (1961) provided a fascinating explanation of cell form and arrangement of the protonema in Mittenia, and its resultant ability to refract ambient light; this ability sometimes gives the protonema a luminescent appearance. Stone referred to two phases in the protonemal development of Mittenia, with one being a "highly refractive stage with lens-like cells". The protonema have branches "composed of lenticular cells spread out in a plane at right angles to the light and sometimes appearing like plates of tissue". The lenticular shape of the cell walls concentrates incoming light on the chloroplasts, which are massed near the more highly convex underside of the cell. According to Stone the luminosity is a result of the light that is not absorbed by the chloroplasts being reflected, giving the protonema a "striking green lustre". The lustrous areas of the protonema are "regions of the lenticular protonema…[receiving]…incident light from a suitable direction".

Mittenia has often been compared in this regard to the famed Schistostega pennata, the "luminous moss" or "goblin gold" of the northern hemisphere. Plants of both these "luminescent" genera grow on soil in conditions of extremely low light.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
Number of species in New Zealand within Mittenia Lindb.
CategoryNumber
Indigenous (Non-endemic)1
Total1
 Bibliography
Fife, A.J. 2015: Mitteniaceae. In: Heenan, P.B.; Breitwieser, I.; Wilton, A.D. (ed.) Flora of New Zealand — Mosses. Fascicle 23. 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.
Lindberg, S.O. 1863 ("1862"): Om ett nytt slägte, Epiptygerium, bland bladmossorna. Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar 19: 599–609.
Mitten, W. 1859a: Hepaticae. 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. III. Flora Tasmaniae. Part II. Monocotyledones and acotyledones. Lovell Reeve, London. 221–241.
Mitten, W. 1859b: 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.
Mitten, W. 1869: Musci Austro-Americani, sive enumeratio muscorum omnium Austro-Americanorum mihi hucusque cognitorum, eorum praecipue in terris Amazonicis Andinisque Ricardo Spruceo lectorum. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany 12: 1–659.
Mitten, W. 1882: Australian mosses, enumerated by William Mitten, Esq. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 19: 49–96.
Stone, I.G. 1961: The highly refractive protonema of Mittenia plumula (Mitt.) Lindb. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 74: 119–124.