Hypnales is the botanical name of an

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

of Bryophyta or leafy

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es. This group is sometimes called feather mosses, referring to their freely branched stems. The order includes more than 40 families and more than 4,000 species, making them the largest order of mosses.

Description

Hypnales are mosses with

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and ...

ly or irregularly branched, reclining stems, with varying appearances. The stem contains only a reduced central

vascular bundle A vascular bundle is a part of the transport system in vascular plants. The transport itself happens in the stem, which exists in two forms: xylem and phloem. Both these tissues are present in a vascular bundle, which in addition will incl ...

, which is seen as a recent

derived trait In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ha ...

in mosses. The stems are covered with paraphyllia or pseudoparaphyllia, reduced filamentous or scaly leaves. The ordinary stem leaves are

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

, often with leaf wing cells. The midvein is often limited to the lower half of the leaf blade, or has completely disappeared. The cells of the leaf blade are prosenchymatic, many times longer than wide, with pointed ends interlocking. The

sporophyte A sporophyte () is one of the two alternation of generations, alternating multicellular organism, multicellular phases in the biological life cycle, life cycles of plants and algae. It is a diploid multicellular organism which produces asexual Spo ...

consists of a regularly shaped

sporangium A sporangium (from Late Latin, ; : sporangia) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a unicellular organism, single cell or can be multicellular organism, multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungus, fungi, and many ot ...

on a long stalk or

seta In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae, ...

. The spores are distributed via a ring-shaped opening with two rows of teeth, the

peristome Peristome (from the Greek language, Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about', and ''stoma'', 'mouth') is an anatomical feature that surrounds an opening to an organ or structure. Some plants, fungi, and shelled gastropods have peristomes. In mo ...

, which before ripeness is closed by a beak-shaped operculum. The enlarged venter or calyptra is cap-shaped and smooth.

Habitat, distribution and paleobiology

Hypnales are

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

lithophytic Lithophytes are plants that grow in or on rocks. They can be classified as either epilithic (or epipetric) or endolithic; epilithic lithophytes grow on the surfaces of rocks, while endolithic lithophytes grow in the crevices of rocks (and are also ...

plants that occur in the most diverse

biotope A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of flora (plants), plants and fauna (animals), animals. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term habitat (ecology), "habitat", which ...

s and are distributed worldwide. Many species of this family are not picky concerning their

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (aquatic environment), the earthy material that exi ...

and

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

. The earliest fossils of representatives of the Hypnales are known only from the

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

, indicating that this group is young compared to other groups of mosses. 'Feathermoss' is a term used in classifying and describing certain boreal forests. An example of this occurrence is within the

Black Spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of Newfoundland and Labrador and is tha ...

/Feathermoss

climax forest In scientific ecology, climax community or climatic climax community is a historic term for a community of plants, animals, and fungi which, through the process of ecological succession in the development of vegetation in an area over time, hav ...

, often having moderately dense canopy and featuring a forest floor of feathermosses including ''

Hylocomium splendens ''Hylocomium splendens'', commonly known as glittering woodmoss, splendid feather moss, stairstep moss, and mountain fern moss, is a perennial clonal moss with a widespread distribution in Northern Hemisphere boreal forests. It is commonly found ...

'', ''

Pleurozium schreberi ''Pleurozium schreberi'', the red-stemmed feathermoss or Schreber's big red stem moss, is a moss with a loose growth pattern. The prefix 'pleuro-' is derived from the Latin word for ribs, possibly referring to the way the branches extend from the ...

'' and ''

Ptilium crista-castrensis ''Ptilium crista-castrensis'', the knights plume moss or ostrich-plume feathermoss, is a moss species within the family Pylaisiaceae, in the class Bryopsida, subclass Bryidae and order Hypnales. Ecology This species occurs on the floor of Canada ...

''. These weft-form mosses are shaped to allow the needles to fall into them rather than covering them, so they grow over the needles.

Classification

In 2010, genetic research suggests that the Fabroniaceae are the sistergroup of all other Hypnales. Next to branch-off are the Catagoniaceae. According to this analysis, some of the remaining

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

may be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

(Lembophyllaceae, Neckeraceae, Brachytheciaceae), others

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

(Lepyrodontaceae enclose Stereophyllaceae, part of the Brachytheciaceae enclose Symphyodontaceae and two separate parts of the Lembophyllaceae, part of the Neckeraceae enclose the remaining Brachytheciaceae, another part of the Lembophyllaceae enclose Rigodiaceae and Pterigynandraceae and a second part of the Neckeraceae). The rest of the families, the third part of the Neckeraceae and the fourth part of the Lembophyllaceae could be

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

. Originally, the Leucodontales were treated as a separate order, which were defined by a reduced

. However, molecular analyses rejected separation of the Leucodontales and the Hypnales. The former was absorbed into the latter.BUCK, W.R., GOFFINET, B. & SHAW, A.J. 2000. Testing morphological concepts of orders of pleurocarpous mosses (Bryophyta) using phylogenetic reconstructions based on trnL-trnF and rps4 sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 16, 180–198.

Families

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

accepts the following families: Immediate children * Acrocladiaceae (5) *

Amblystegiaceae Amblystegiaceae is a family of mosses. It includes 20 to 30 genera with a total of up to 150 species. *'' Jankuceraea'' Ignatov & Ignatova2022 *'' Kandaea'' Jan Kučera & Hedenäs2020 *'' Koponenia'' Ochyra1985 *'' Larrainia'' W.R. Buck2015 *'' ...

(284) *

Anomodontaceae Anomodontaceae is a family of mosses belonging to the order Hypnales. Genera: * ''Anomodon (plant), Anomodon'' Hook. & Taylor * ''Anomodontella'' Ignatov & Fedosov * ''Anomodontopsis'' Ignatov & Fedosov * ''Bryonorrisia'' L.R.Stark & W.R.Buck * ...

(45) * Antitrichiaceae (6) *

Brachytheciaceae Brachytheciaceae is a family of mosses from the order Hypnales. The family includes over 40 genera and 250 species. Description The family consists of pleurocarpous mosses with very diverse appearances. They are irregular or pinnately branche ...

(867) * Callicladiaceae (6) * Calliergonaceae (36) *

Catagoniaceae Catagoniaceae is a small family of mosses in the order Hypnales, distinguished by its hypnoid peristome characterized by well-developed, ornamented exostomial teeth and leaves with double costae. Species typically grow in compact tufts or dense m ...

(16) *

Climaciaceae Climaciaceae is a family of mosses belonging to the order Hypnales Hypnales is the botanical name of an order of Bryophyta or leafy mosses. This group is sometimes called feather mosses, referring to their freely branched stems. The order i ...

(12) * Cryphaeaceae (90) *

Echinodiaceae Echinodiaceae is a monogeneric family of moss from the order Hypnobryales. It is found worldwide (especially the Americas and Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and P ...

(11) *

Entodontaceae Entodontaceae is a family of mosses belonging to the order Hypnales. Genera As accepted by GBIF: The figures in parentheses denote how many species in each genus. Formerly included * '' Cribrodontium'' – synonym of ''Entodon'' * '' Cyli ...

(161) * Fabroniaceae (98) *

Fontinalaceae Fontinalaceae is a family of mosses belonging to the order Hypnales. Genera: * '' Brachelyma'' Schimp. ex Cardot (1) * '' Cryphaeadelphus'' (Müller Hal.) J.Cardot, 1904 * '' Dichelyma'' Myrin (10) * ''Fontinalis ''Fontinalis'' is a genus of ...

(53) * Habrodontaceae (4) * Helodiaceae (14) * Heterocladiellaceae (4) * Hydropogonellaceae (2) *

Hylocomiaceae Hylocomiaceae is a family (biology), family of mosses in the order Hypnales. It includes 14 genera and around 36 species. Genera Genera include: * ''Hylocomiadelphus'' Ochyra & Stebel * ''Hylocomiastrum'' M. Fleisch. ex Broth. * ''Hylocomium'' ...

(77) *

Hypnaceae Hypnaceae is a large family of moss with broad worldwide occurrence in the class Bryopsida, subclass Bryidae and order Hypnales. Genera include ''Hypnum'', ''Phyllodon (plant), Phyllodon'', and ''Taxiphyllum''. Ecology Some of the family species ...

(781) * Jocheniaceae (3) *

Lembophyllaceae Lembophyllaceae is a family of pleurocarpous mosses in the order Hypnales. It was originally described by Finnish botanist Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus (1849–1929) in 1909. The family is mainly found in Australasia and southern South America. Ta ...

(157) * Lepyrodontaceae (10) *

Leskeaceae Leskeaceae is a family of mosses belonging to the order Hypnales. Genera As recognised by World Flora Online (2024); *'' Fabronidium'' Müll. Hal. (1 species) *'' Haplocladium'' (Müll. Hal.) Müll. Hal. (18 species) *'' Hylocomiopsis'' Cardot ( ...

(152) * Leucodontaceae (56) * Meteoriaceae (293) * Microtheciellaceae (2) * Miyabeaceae (19) * Myriniaceae (13) * Myuriaceae (61) *

Neckeraceae Neckeraceae is a moss family in the order Hypnales. There are about 200 species native to temperate and tropical regions. Most grow on rocks, or other plants. Description Members of the family are usually large and glossy plants with creeping st ...

(454) * Orthostichellaceae (30) * Phyllogoniaceae (4) *

Plagiotheciaceae Plagiotheciaceae is a family of mosses from the order Hypnales. It is found almost nearly worldwide, including Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Anta ...

(195) * Pleuroziopsaceae * Prionodontaceae (8) * Pseudoleskeaceae (58) * Pseudoleskeellaceae (14) * Pterigynandraceae (6) * Pterobryaceae (218) * Pylaisiaceae (107) * Pylaisiadelphaceae (456) * Regmatodontaceae (9) * Rhizofabroniaceae (6) * Rhytidiaceae (8) * Rutenbergiaceae (17) * Scorpidiaceae (34) * Sematophyllaceae (722) *

Sorapillaceae ''Sorapilla'' is a genus of mosses in the monotypic family Sorapillaceae. The family was previously placed in the order Hypnales Hypnales is the botanical name of an order of Bryophyta or leafy mosses. This group is sometimes called feather ...

(3) * Stereodontaceae (33) * Stereophyllaceae (56) * Symphyodontaceae (148) * Taxiphyllaceae (73) * Theliaceae (4) *

Thuidiaceae Thuidiaceae is a family of mosses within the order Hypnales. It includes many genera but the classification may need to be refined. The core genera are ''Thuidium'', '' Thuidiopsis'', '' Pelekium'', '' Aequatoriella'', '' Abietinella'', '' Rauiel ...

(174) * Trachylomataceae (14) Figures in brackets are approx. how many species per genus. Former familia (with new orders);

(->

Leucodontales Hypnales is the botanical name of an order (biology), order of Bryophytes, Bryophyta or leafy mosses. This group is sometimes called feather mosses, referring to their freely branched stems. The order includes more than 40 families and more than ...

), Cryphaeaceae (-> Leucodontales),

(-> Hypnobryales),

(-> Isobryales),

(-> Bryales), Leptodontaceae (-> Leucodontales), Lepyrodontaceae (-> Isobryales), Leucodontaceae (-> Leucodontales), Meteoriaceae (-> Leucodontales), Microtheciellaceae (-> Orthotrichales),

(-> Leucodontales), Prionodontaceae (-> Isobryales), Pterobryaceae (-> Leucodontales), Regmatodontaceae (-> Isobryales), Rutenbergiaceae (-> Isobryales) and

(-> Dicranales)

References

External links

{{Authority control Hypnanae Moss orders