Buxbaumia - Classification

Classification

Buxbaumia is the only genus in the family Buxbaumiaceae, the order Buxbaumiales, and the subclass Buxbaumiidae. It is the sister group to all other members of class Bryopsida. Some older classifications included the Diphysciaceae within the Buxbaumiales (or as part of the Buxbaumiaceae) because of similarities in the peristome structure, or placed the Buxbaumiaceae in the Tetraphidales. Most recent cladistic studies using DNA sequences are not conclusive regarding the relationship between Buxbaumia and Diphyscium, but evidence suggests they are separate lines of a paraphyletic group. No recent studies favor a placement with the Tetraphidales.

The genus Buxbaumia includes twelve species:

genus Buxbaumia

Buxbaumia aphylla

Buxbaumia colyerae

Buxbaumia himalayensis

Buxbaumia javanica

Buxbaumia minakatae

Buxbaumia novae-zelandiae

Buxbaumia piperi

Buxbaumia punctata

Buxbaumia symmetrica

Buxbaumia tasmanica

Buxbaumia thorsborneae

Buxbaumia viridis

Oedipodiopsida

Tetraphidopsida

Polytrichopsida

Bryopsida

Buxbaumia

Diphysciidae

	Timmiidae

	Funariidae

	Dicranidae

	Bryidae

The species and phylogenetic position of Buxbaumia.

Because of the simplicity of its structure, Goebel interpreted Buxbaumia as a primitive moss, transitional between the algae and mosses, but subsequent research suggests that it is a secondarily reduced form. The unusual peristome in Buxbaumia is now thought to be a transitional form between the nematodontous (cellular teeth) peristome of the Polytrichopsida and the arthrodontous (cell wall teeth) peristome of the Bryopsida.