HEPATICS FROM NORTHWESTERN SICHUAN, CHINA, WITH A CHECKLIST OF SICHUAN HEPATICS

A collection of bryophytes by a Finnish-Chinese expedition in northwes tern Sichuan in September 1991 includes 50 species of liverworts. The major collecting areas were in Minshan Range in Songpan and Nanping Co unties. A smaller collection comes from the valley of the River Sue-Mo North of Qiong-Lai Range in Ma-Er-Kang County and from Hongyuan Count y from the vicinity of Shua-Jin Temple. Chiloscyphus itoanus (H. Inoue ) Engel gr Schust. is reported for the first time for China, and Calyp ogeia cordistipula (Steph.) Steph. is synonymized with C. neesiana (Ma ss. & Car.) K. Mull. Twenty-six liverworts are for the first time repo rted for Sichuan. The checklist of Sichuan hepatics is given. A total of 139 species are known to occur there. The flora is remarkably diver sified. The major elements of the flora are widely distributed circump olar boreal taxa, which occur in the humid oroboreal zone in Sichuan. Boreal species of the lichen genera Cladonia Hill and Peltigera Wild. and the species of the moss families Cinclidiaceae, Mniaceae and Plagi omniaceae show a similar altitudinal distribution in the study area. S pecies of widely distributed temperate southeast Asiatic taxa occur wi th an intermixture of some endemic and tropical species. The list incl udes discussions on the nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution.