Kosovich-Anderson, Ye.I. Mosses of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, U.S.A.: new altitudinal records for North America

Arctoa (2015) 24: 141-147

doi: 10.15298/arctoa.24.14

Remarkable extensions of upper elevation limits for 37 species and one variety of mosses in North America are reported from Wyoming, U.S.A. The bryophyte inventory research was conducted in the two national forests in the state, Medicine Bow and Shoshone National Forests, lying in the high country of the Rocky Mountains. The study area spans about 13700 km2 and ranges in elevation from approx. 1700 to over 3650 m. A total of 13 families in the author’s herbarium, collected within the period of 2003-2014, were analyzed, namely Amblystegiaceae, Bartramiaceae, Brachytheciaceae, Calliergonaceae, Dicranaceae, Hedwigiaceae, Hypnaceae, Mniaceae, Plagiotheciaceae, Polytrichaceae, Pottiaceae, Scouleriaceae and Sphagnaceae. Selected specimens are cited representing taxa from the highest known elevations of Wyoming. The new information, supplemented by earlier works of the U.S. Rocky Mountains moss flora researchers, essentially updates altitudinal ranges of the taxa, provided in the recently published Volumes 27 & 28 of the Flora of North America.