Correlations between the European, tropical African and tropical American moss floras

摘要

Acomparison of the mosses recorded from Europe and tropical Africa revealed 142 species in common in both continents, about 6% of the African and 13% of the European moss floras. Most of these species common in both continents (35.8%) are azonal in distribution (aquatic and epipetric species), 27% are temperate, 13,9% tropical, 13 1% mediterranean and 10 2% cosmopolitan 146 species are common in Europe and tropical America. Only 53 of these occur also in tropical Africa. Transplantation experiments with bryophytes from tropical Africa showed that species of higher altitudes above 3000 m are able to grow in Europe and that phytohistorical and not physiological reasons are responsible for the presence or lack of tropical species in temperate regions.The Macaronesian Islands (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands) link the tropics with Europe. Therefore the relations of their moss flora to tropical Africa and Europe were calculated. Except for 47 species endemic to the Macaronesian Islands, there are onlyeight tropical species in the Canary Islands and the Azores. Thus 90% of the mossflora of Macaronesia resembles that of Europe,