Context

• A new species of moss of the genus Bryocrumia i.e. Bryocrumia malabarica has been named after the Malabar region of Kerala from where it was spotted.

Bryocrumia malabarica

• Bryocrumia malabarica, discovered in the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary along the Western Ghats.

  

• This tiny bryophyte is only the second species to be identified in the genus Bryocrumia which has for long thought to be monotypic – that is, represented by just one species.
• For years, the genus Bryocrumia was thought to include only one species – Bryocrumia vivicolor. Found on rocks in streams, B. vivicolor has been spotted in Congo and Uganda in Africa, North and South Carolina in the United States, China’s Yunnan, Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka, and Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in India.
• Bryocrumia malabarica was found on rocky patches along a stream in the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary. The plant, which is light green in colour, differs from Bryocrumia vivicolor in the structure of its leaves.
• Bryophytes are a group of plants that play significant roles in the ecosystem. They arrange the suitable microclimate in the forest ecosystem, and provide suitable microhabitats for many other organisms, especially small insects.
• Bryocrumia malabarica is the 12th species of bryophytes newly described from Kerala in recent years.

Source: The Hindu

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