Bryophyte flora of São Tomé and Príncipe: an update of the Lejeuneaceae family

Abstract

A Lejeuneaceae updated checklist for São Tomé and Príncipe is presented, including 69 species, being 32 taxa endemic, 23 new records to São Tomé and Príncipe, and 10 new records to Africa. This checklist has been carried out, based on the study of ca. 600 samples housed at LISU herbarium collected by the second author in his postdoctoral project, on two field works in 2007 and 2008, and later in 2016. Within the Lejeuneaceae family, 85 species were known from the country and the new reports increased the total number of species in 27% compared with the last publications. Thus the islands can be distinguished due to the high number of the species of the Lejeuneaceae family that represents about 50% of the country liverwort’s flora. These results corroborate that field work and study of herbarium collections bringing new data for the bryophyte diversity of the archipelago.