Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2025 | 17(9): 27544–27547
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9670.17.9.27544-27547
#9670 | Received 07 February 2025 | Final received 25 August 2025 |
Finally accepted 11 September 2025
Recent additions and taxonomic
changes in the liverwort and hornwort flora of India
Shuvadeep Majumdar 1 &
Monalisa Dey 2
1 Department of Botany, Scottish
Church College, Kolkata, West Bengal 700006, India.
2 Botanical Survey of India, Sikkim
Himalayan Regional Centre, Gangtok, Sikkim 737103,
India.
1 smbotn@scottishchurch.ac.in
(corresponding author), 2 drmdey2010@gmail.com
Editor: D.K. Singh, Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh, India. Date of publication: 26 September 2025 (online & print)
Citation:
Majumdar, S. & M. Dey (2025). Recent
additions and taxonomic changes in the liverwort and hornwort flora of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 17(9): 27544–27547. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9670.17.9.27544-27547
Copyright: © Majumdar & Dey 2025. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use,
reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing
adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgments: Authors thank the principal, Scottish Church College and the director, Botanical Survey of India, for encouragement. Authors also thank the reviewers and the section editor for providing valuable suggestions for the improvement of the manuscript. SM acknowledges DST FIST, sanction number SR/FST/COLLEGE/2023/1486, Government of India, New Delhi for providing financial assistance to Scottish Church College.
Singh et
al. (2016) in their Checklist of Liverworts & Hornworts in India included
930 species, and infraspecific taxa. Later, Majumdar & Dey
(2021) provided lists of taxa added to Indian bryoflora during
2016–2020 along with the list of taxa synonymized during this period. The updated
list of taxa thus comprised 953 species and infraspecific taxa, belonging to
141 genera, 59 families, 17 orders, and four classes from two phyla. Of these,
854 species, 17 subspecies, 41 varieties, and two forma belonged to 135 genera
in 56 families of liverworts and 39 species representing six genera in three
families of hornworts.
However,
just within a span of four years, 18 new species, one new subspecies have been
described from India and 22 species have been newly reported from India. At the
same time, three species and four varieties have been synonymized. Ali et al.
(2024) while doing taxonomic studies on Indian Balantiopsidaceae,
excluded the occurrence of Isotachis armata (Nees) Gottsche from India. According to Ali et al. (2024), I. armata was erroneously reported by Das & Singh
(2007) from Arunachal Pradesh, India, as the specimens studied by them belongs
to Isotachis japonica Steph. During
this time, six genera, viz., Barbilophozia Loeske, Dinckleria Trevis., Diplasiolejeunea
(Spruce) Schiffn., Gymnocolea
(Dumort.) Dumort., Mesoptychia (Lindb.)
A.Evans, and Saccogyna Dumort.
of liverworts and the genus Phymatoceros Stotler, W.T.Doyle
& Crand.-Stotl. of
hornworts have been added to the liverwort & hornwort flora of the country.
Two families, one each from hornwort (Phymatocerotaceae),
and liverwort (Saccogynaceae) were also
recorded for the first time in India.
Presently,
after all these changes, the number of taxa has soared to 986 species and
infraspecific taxa belonging to 148 genera, 61 families, 17 orders, and four
classes in two phyla. Of these, 890 species, 18 subspecies, 37 varieties, and
two forma belongs to 141 genera in 57 families of liverworts, and 39 species representing
six genera in four families of hornworts (See Tables 1, 2, & 3).
*Note: Li et al.
(2011) synonymised the genus Hattorioceros (J.Haseg.) J.Haseg. under Phaeoceros
Prosk., but Majumdar & Dey (2021) missed out. So, presently in India there are six
genera under Anthocerotophyta. Majumdar & Dey (2021) also missed out the occurrence of Barbilophozia hatcheri from India
(Gupta et al. 2019). The same has been presently incorporated.
Table 1. Alphabetic lists of taxa added to Indian bryoflora
after publication of Majumdar & Dey (2021).
|
|
Taxa |
Family |
Reference |
|
1 |
Acrolejeunea aulacophora (Mont.) Steph. |
Lejeuneaceae |
Daniels 2021 |
|
2 |
Barbilophozia barbata (Schmidel ex Schreb.) Loeske |
Anastrophyllaceae |
Kour & Singh 2023 |
|
3 |
*Barbilophozia
hatcheri (A.Evans) Loeske |
Anastrophyllaceae |
Gupta et al. 2019 |
|
4 |
Barbilophozia lycopodioides (Wallr.)
Loeske |
Anastrophyllaceae |
Kour & Singh 2023 |
|
5 |
Cheilolejeunea occlusa (Herzog) T.Kodama
& N.Kitag. |
Lejeuneaceae |
Kumar & Singh 2025a |
|
6 |
Cololejeunea devendrae Shashi Kumar & D.Singh |
Lejeuneaceae |
Kumar & Singh 2025b |
|
7 |
Cylindrocolea devendrae Manju & P.P.Nishida |
Cephaloziellaceae |
Manju et al. 2023 |
|
8 |
Cylindrocolea mizoramensis Sushil K.Singh |
Cephaloziellaceae |
Singh 2022 |
|
9 |
Cyathodium udarii D.Singh & D.K.Singh |
Cyathodiaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
|
10 |
Dinckleria singularis (Schiffn.) M.A.M. Renner, Schäf.-Verw. & Heinrichs |
Plagiochilaceae |
Singh Deo & Singh 2020 |
|
11 |
Diplasiolejeunea cavifolia Steph. |
Lejeuneaceae |
Chandini et al. 2021 |
|
12 |
Diplasiolejeunea cobrensis Gottsche ex Steph. |
Lejeuneaceae |
Chandini et al. 2021 |
|
13 |
Frullania bolanderi Austin |
Frullaniaceae |
Rawat et al. 2021 |
|
14 |
Frullania sikkimensis D.Singh & D.K.Singh |
Frullaniaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
|
15 |
Gymnocolea inflata (Huds.) Dumort. |
Anastrophyllaceae |
Arya et al. 2021 |
|
16 |
Gymnomitrion udarii D.Singh & D.K.Singh |
Gymnomitriaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023b |
|
17 |
Heteroscyphus planus (Mitt.) Schiffn. |
Lophocoleaceae |
Zheng 2024 |
|
18 |
Megaceros gracilis (Reichardt) Steph. |
Dendrocerotaceae |
Majumdar & Singh 2025 |
|
19 |
Mesoptychia morrisoncola (Horik.) L.Söderstr.
& Váňa |
Jungermanniaceae |
Singh & Singh 2021 |
|
20 |
Phymatoceros binsarensis A.K.Asthana, D.Shukla &
Reesa Gupta |
Phymatocerotaceae |
Asthana et al. 2023 |
|
21 |
Plagiochila dampaensis Sushil K.Singh
& K.K.Rawat |
Plagiochilaceae |
Singh & Rawat 2020 |
|
22 |
Plagiochila meagheriana S.Majumdar & M.Dey |
Plagiochilaceae |
Majumdar & Dey 2025 |
|
23 |
Plagiochila mizoramensis Sushil K.Singh & K.K.Rawat |
Plagiochilaceae |
Singh & Rawat 2020 |
|
24 |
Plagiochila ponmudiana A.E.D.Daniels & S.R.Aishwarya |
Plagiochilaceae |
Daniels et al. 2024 |
|
25 |
Plagiochila sirumalaiana A.E.D.Daniels & Z.H.Williams |
Plagiochilaceae |
Daniels et al. 2024 |
|
26 |
Plagiochila squamulosa Mitt. subsp. tamas-pocsii
Sajitha, Manju & Rawat |
Plagiochilaceae |
Sajitha et al. 2024 |
|
27 |
Riccia atromarginata Levier |
Ricciaceae |
Karadakatti & Betageri 2023 |
|
28 |
Riccia boliviensis Jovet-Ast |
Ricciaceae |
Asthana & Srivastava 2021 |
|
29 |
Riccia junghuhniana Nees & Lindenb. |
Ricciaceae |
Suresh & Cargill 2024 |
|
30 |
Riccia keralensis Manju, Chandini, Sushil K.Singh & K.P.Rajesh |
Ricciaceae |
Manju et al. 2021 |
|
31 |
Riccia lamellosa Raddi |
Ricciaceae |
|
|
32 |
Riccia okahandjana S.W.Arnell |
Ricciaceae |
Suresh & Cargill 2022 |
|
33 |
Riccia sarieae A.E.D.Daniels
& D.T.T.Daniels |
Ricciaceae |
Daniels & Daniel 2022 |
|
34 |
Riccia stenophylla Spruce |
Ricciaceae |
Athira & Daniels 2022 |
|
35 |
Saccogyna darjeelingensis M.Dey & S.Majumdar |
Saccogynaceae |
Dey & Majumdar 2022 |
|
36 |
Scapania bhutanensis Amak. |
Scapaniaceae |
Rawat et al. 2024; Zheng 2025 |
|
37 |
Scapania karl-muelleri Grolle |
Scapaniaceae |
Rawat et al. 2024 |
|
38 |
Scapania lachungensis D.Singh & D.K.Singh |
Scapaniaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023b |
|
39 |
Scapania spiniloba Potemkin |
Scapaniaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023b |
|
40 |
Solenostoma vidyasagarianum “vidyasagariensis”
Sk. R.Islam, A.K.Mondal & D.Singh |
Solenostomataceae |
Islam et al. 2025 |
|
41 |
Telaranea mizoramensis Sushil K.Singh |
Lepidoziaceae |
Singh 2022 |
Table 2. Alphabetic lists of taxon synonymized.
|
|
Taxa |
Family |
Reference |
|
1 |
Folioceros paliformis D.K.Singh = Folioceros
kashyapii S.C.Srivast. & A.K.Asthana |
Anthocerotaceae |
Singh Deo & Majumdar 2021 |
|
2 |
Jubula hattorii Udar & V.Nath = Jubula
hutchinsiae (Hook.) Dumort.
subsp. javanica (Steph.)
Verd. |
Jubulaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
|
3 |
Jubula hattorii Udar & V.Nath var. muthukuzhiana
A.E.D.Daniels & P.Daniel = Jubula
hutchinsiae (Hook.) Dumort.
subsp. javanica (Steph.)
Verd. |
Jubulaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
|
4 |
Lopholejeunea sikkimensis var. kumaunii Kushwaha = Lopholejeunea
sikkimensis Steph. var. sikkimensis |
Lejeuneaceae |
Priyanka et al. 2023 |
|
5 |
Lopholejeunea sikkimensis var. tenuicostata
Sushil K.Singh & D.K.Singh = Lopholejeunea
sikkimensis Steph. var. sikkimensis |
Lejeuneaceae |
Priyanka et al. 2023 |
|
6 |
Metzgeria furcata (L.) Corda var. ulvula
Nees = Metzgeria
furcata (L.) Corda var. furcata
|
Metzgeriaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
|
7 |
Metzgeria assamica S.C.Srivast. = Metzgeria
macrocellulosa Kuwah. |
Metzgeriaceae |
Singh & Singh 2023a |
Table 3. Taxon excluded from India.
|
|
Taxa |
Family |
Reference |
|
1 |
Isotachis armata (Nees) Gottsche
sensu Sudipa Das &
D.K. Singh (2007) |
Balantiopsidaceae |
Ali et al. 2024 |
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