NEW LIVERWORT RECORDS FROM THE PERUVIAN ANDES

Enumeration and distributional data of 28 liverworts new to Peru are presented, accompanied by taxonomic annotations, phytogeographical evaluation and illustrations. Remark-able new Peruvian records include the very rare northern Andean endemic Platycaulis reni-folia as well as Frullania pearceana, hitherto known only from its type locality in Bolivia. Oil bodies are described for the first time in the genus Platycaulis and male branches are newly observed in Radula yanoella, a species hitherto known only in sterile state.


INTRODUCTION
Peru, despite its rich biodiversity, is bryofloristically-speaking, one of lesser-explored countries of South America. Alexander von Humboldt did not collect bryophytes during his short stay in the country in 1802. The first collections of Peruvian liverworts were made (and published) by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig, who visited Peru between 1829 and 1832 (Menzel 1984, Poeppig 1836. Among subsequent collectors, Richard Spruce (1884Spruce ( , 1885 visited the San Martín Department and described a number of new species from his collections. Following Spruce, other important early Peruvian bryophyte collections include those of Ernst Heinrich Georg Ule and August Weberbauer. In the 20th century, the collections of Eberhard and Pirrko Hegewald, who collected extensively across Peru between 1972 and 1976 (see Menzel 1984Menzel , 1986, and those of the Bryotrop Expedition in 1982 stand out. The Bryotrop collections were made mostly on the eastern slopes of the northern Andes in the Departments of Amazonas, Ancash, Cajamarca and San Martín, with collections made across an elevational gradient from lowland Amazonian habitats to the Polylepis forests of the upper Andes. A good part of the results of this expedition were published under the editorship of Frey (1987). Kürsch-PÓCS, T., GRAHAM, J. G., von KONRAT, M. and LARRAÍN, J. ner and Parolly (1998) explored the epiphytic bryophyte communities along the same route of the Bryotrop Expedition. In the present century, published bryological collections for Peru include those of Opisso and Churchill (2008) and Romanski et al. (2007Romanski et al. ( , 2011 from the environs of Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park, Pasco Department, of Majestyk and Janovec (2011) from Madre de Dios, as well as Graham et al. (2016) from the Reserva Comunal El Sira in Ucayali and Pasco Departments. Several new species were described by Pócs (2019a, b) from Junín and Pasco Departments, resulting from the collections made in the framework of several Field Museum expeditions, and this publication represents the continuation of these efforts.
The Field Museum (F) in Chicago has been involved in exploring the biodiversity of the Selva Centrál [central rainforest] Region of Peru (Fig. 1), targeting the mosses, liverworts and ferns of protected areas including Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park and Bosque Sho'llet Municipal conservation area in Pasco Department, as well as in the Pampa Hermosa National Sanctuary and the Puyu Sacha conservation concession in Junín Department. Fieldwork was carried out in 2016 and 2017 in cooperation with the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, and the Herbario Selva Central Oxapampa. Since 2007, the second author (JG) has been conducting biological exploration and botanical collection in the Yanachaga-San Mathias-San Carlos-El Sira complex, part of the UNESCO-designated Oxapampa-Ashaninka-Yanesha Biosphere Reserve in the Selva Centrál of Peru. This area harbours one of the most intact rainforest blocks in the Andes, and the first results of his bryophyte collecting activities have been published (Graham et al. 2016). Together with the third and fourth authors (MK and JL) further collecting expeditions to the area took place in May 2016 and July 2017. As a result, significant bryophyte and pteridophyte materials were collected; their identification was carried out by T. Pócs (EGR), M. Fischer (F), J. Larraín (PUVC) and by C. Rothfels (UC).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The enumeration below contains liverwort species new to the bryoflora of Peru already identified by T. Pócs. The nomenclature follows Söderström et al. (2015) and Gradstein (2021). To establish their novelty to Peru, the authors referred to an (unpublished) new checklist kindly made available by A. Hagborg (F) and L. Söderström (TRH). The specimens cited herein were collected by J. G. Graham in Reserva Comunal El Sira, Ucayali and Pasco Departments, in Yanachaga-Chemillén area and by the members of the two collecting expe   Cololejeunea yelitzae Pócs et Bernecker (Fig. 7) (Lücking 1995, Gradstein andCosta 2003). The largest species of the genus with short incision on the underleaf apex.

ENUMERATION OF SPECIES NEW TO PERU
Diplasiolejeunea alata Jov.-Ast (Fig. 8) Havasi 1706 BB, epífila. -The species was described from Brazil, but is very close and maybe synonym of D. brunnea Steph., as the only difference is the straight (not incurved) second tooth of lobule (Gradstein and Costa 2003).
Drepanolejeunea lichenicola (Spruce) Steph. (Figs 9-10 Bischler (1964Bischler ( , 1967 treated the falcate-leaved Drepanolejeunea bispinulosa A. Evans as a synonym, while Schuster (1996) considered it to be a separate species. According to our experience the two taxa are inseparable at the species level.

DISCUSSION
The above enumeration of new records is the result of the identification of several hundred specimens, but still thousands of specimens, the result of the collecting activity of the second author and of the two expeditions organized by Field Museum, are awaiting identification. Many more new records and even still undescribed new species may be expected among them. Comparing the Peruvian bryoflora with that of Colombia and Ecuador, we should expect to find a relatively similar number of species in the three countries. While in Peru many wet paramo species are not known to occur, instead many xerophytes of puna and desertic vegetation are present in good number, which have not yet been reported to occur northwards. According to the detailed account of Colombian and Ecuadorian liverwort and hornwort flora (Gradstein 2021), 850 accepted species, more than 10% of the world's flora are known. The number of endemics in the Amazonian regions is 28, in the Pacific coastal region (Chocó) 11, in Galápagos Islands 10 and finally in the northern Andes (including Venezuela) more than 80 species are identified, altogether accounting for around 130 species (15%). This is a high endemism rate, compared for example with the island liverwort flora of Cuba, which has only 11.4% of endemic species (Pócs 1988 Many areas in the northern Andes and Amazonia are still little or unexplored. It would be good to collect systematically in these regions, deposit and identify and document the obtained material in major local and international herbaria. This task is of some urgency, as roadless areas are rapidly disappearing and intact forest areas are shrinking, due to human impact. We can expect that forest burning, road construction and the increase of agricultural land will annihilate important bryophyte habitats not yet explored. Global warming and climate change just exacerbates this process, therefore the conservation of existing, and the creation of new national parks and reserves is essential to preserve biodiversity, water resources and sustain a liveable human environment. In existing agricultural land and forests under exploitation it is necessary to introduce up-to-date methods to preserve the present ratio of natural and cultivated areas, as well as to rehabilitate overexploited habitats. * C. Rothfels (UC, Berkeley), A. Séneca and L. Söderström (TRH) and M. von Konrat (F). We all are very grateful for the facilities and logistics provided by Herbario Selva Central Oxapampa-estación biológica del Jardín Botánico de Missouri, and the Director of its Peru Programme, Rocio V. Martínez, as well as the director of the Herbario Forestal, Universidad Nacional Agraria la Molina, Carlos Reynel, who has supported our research efforts in Peru for many years. Great thanks are due to the directorship of protected areas that provided us access to their Sanctuaries, Parks and Reserves -as the Reserva Comunál El Sira, Parque Nacionál Yanachaga-Chemillén, Santuario Nacionál Pampa Hermosa, CC Bosque Pichita/ Puyu Sacha, and the ACM Bosque Sho'llet -'Les debemos a todos más de mil gracias'. We are also very grateful to Harold and Amber Anderson at Pampa Hermosa for looking after us all so wonderfully on our expedition to Pampa Hermosa. Many thanks to A. Hagborg, L. Söderström and M. von Konrat who kindly provided us with their unpublished checklist of Peru liverworts and hornworts to establish the distribution of the species. Finally the authors are very grateful to Prof. S. R. Gradstein for the careful revision of the text.