A new plant species has been discovered in Glarus. The "Martinsloch-Spalthütchen" (Schistidium foraminis-martini) is a cushion moss that grows at very high altitudes and is therefore threatened by climate change. Only one other site is known worldwide - in the Tyrol.
There, on the Kendlspitze at an altitude of 3084 metres, this moss species was discovered about 25 years ago by the Austrian botanist Heribert Köckinger. The peculiar moss from the genus Schistidium, which is widespread in the European high mountains, did not resemble any species described in the taxonomic literature until then.
The mystery has now been solved after Thomas Kiebacher from the Institute of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany at the University of Zurich found moss with the same characteristics at the Martinsloch. Köckinger and Kiebacher analysed it phylogenetically together with the Norwegian Hans F. Blom. They named it "Schistidium foraminis-martini" and described it as a previously unknown species in the journal "Bryophyte. Diversity and Evolution".
The Martin's Hole Cleft Cap has a warm brown colouration, ovate, concave and mutate leaves with rounded tips, stomata and ellipsoid capsules that are constricted at the mouth. Cushions of the dainty little plant are found on sloping to vertical rock surfaces that are sporadically moistened, for example by melt water.
According to the Red List of the Federal Office for the Environment, Forests and Landscape, 416 of the more than 1000 known Swiss moss species are considered endangered. For example, Schistidium agassizii, which is most closely related to the Martin's Hole moss, has not been sighted since 1966.
Source: Swissinfo.ch - Article number DOI: 10.11646/bde.44.1.1
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