Named after the English botanist Thomas Taylor (1786–1848).

Plants erect. Leaves ovate-acute to ovate-lanceolate; laminal cells thin-walled, smooth, rectangular below, hexagonal or rectangular to quadrate above. Capsules exserted; hypophysis well differentiated, broad and whitish to narrow and pale to reddish. Exostome of 8 teeth.

Chromosome number not known.

Tayloria comprises 40 species; five are endemic to Australasia, but only T. gunnii is known only from Australia.

Tayloria Hook., J. Sci. Arts 2(3): 144 (1816); Type: T. splachnoides (Schwägr.) Hook.

Eremodon Brid., Bryol. Univ. 1: 233 (1826), nom. illeg., type of earlier name included (ICBN, Art. 52.1).

Excluded Names

Tetraplodon mnioides (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp., Bryol. Eur. 3: 215 (1844)

A specimen reminiscent in all its features of T. mnioides s. lat., and in particular of T. lamii Reimers, is filed under Tayloria octoblepharum in BM. This is labelled “Australia, RM 2958”. Tetraplodon mnioides s. lat. is a widespread species, being primarily circumboreal with disjunct occurrences in southern South America (as T. fuegianum Besch.) in New Guinea
(as T. lamii), and in the mountains of Central Africa. The genus Tetraplodon is not known from Australia. Given that the annotations on the specimen are rather obscure, it is suggested that this specimen has been erroneously annotated as originating from Australia.

Tayloria maidenii Broth., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 41: 583 (1916)

Type: Merritt’s Camp, Mt Kosciuszko, N.S.W., J.H.Maiden & W.Forsyth 184; lectotype: H-BR, fide A.J.Fife & B.Goffinet, Bryologist 106: 309 (2003); isolectotype: FH, S.

This species is characterised by an erect, smooth, gymnostomous capsule. In the protologue, Brotherus presents no justification for placing it in the Splachnaceae. Koponen (1982) suggested that the species does not belong here and Fife & Goffinet (Bryologist 106: 309–310, 2003) synonymised the name with Entosthodon laxus (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt. (Funariaceae), an Austral-Andean species known from Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales (A.J.Fife, Hikobia 13: 473–490, 2001).

Koponen (1982) arranged the species of Tayloria s. str. among four subgenera, two of which are represented in Australia. Her classification rests exclusively on sporophytic characters, in particular the architecture of the peristome and the differentiation of exothecial cells. Tayloria callophylla, T. gunnii and T. purpurascens belong to subg. Eremodon, which is defined by the peristome being composed of eight small teeth that are bent inward when dry. Subgenus Pseudotetraplodon accommodates species with eight reflexed peristome teeth and thus includes T. octoblepharum and T. tasmanica.

Dalton, P.J., Seppelt, R.D. & Buchanan, A.M. (1991). An annotated checklist of Tasmanian mosses, in Banks, M.R. et al. (eds) Aspects of Tasmanian Botany – A tribute to Winifred Curtis: 15–31. (Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart).

Koponen, A. & Koponen, T. (1978). The identity of Splachnum turbinatum and Tayloria henryae (Musci, Splachnaceae). Annales Botanici Fennici 15: 89–91.

Sainsbury, G.O.K. (1955). A handbook of New Zealand mosses. Bulletin of the Royal Society of New Zealand 5: 1–490.

Goffinet, B. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 53. Splachnaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 22 June 2012.