Anacolia is a genus of small to medium-sized acrocarpous mosses in the family Bartramiaceae, placed within the order Bartramiales. The genus was established by Wilhelm Philipp Schimper in 1876 in his Synopsis Muscorum Europaeorum, with Anacolia webbii (Mont.) Schimp. as the type species. Bartramiaceae, often called the apple mosses, is characterised by subglobose to spherical capsules that superficially resemble small apples; Anacolia shares this family habit. The genus comprises roughly a dozen accepted species distributed across tropical and subtropical mountains, temperate regions of Africa, the Macaronesian islands, western North America, and parts of Asia and the Southern Hemisphere. The best-known member is Anacolia menziesii (Turner) Paris, described by Paris in the Index Bryologicus (1894), which occurs in western North America, the Macaronesian islands, and is recorded from New Zealand. Like other Bartramiaceae, species of Anacolia typically grow in dense, often glaucous-green or yellowish-green cushions or turfs on acidic, rocky substrates, cliff faces, and soil banks in humid montane habitats.
Taxonomy Notes
Anacolia Schimp. was published in 1876 in Synopsis Muscorum Europaeorum, Editio Secunda, with the type species Anacolia webbii (Mont.) Schimp. The genus belongs to the family Bartramiaceae Schwägr., the sole family of the order Bartramiales, which contains nine genera in total. GBIF currently recognises approximately twelve accepted species under the genus.
Distribution
Anacolia species are distributed across tropical and subtropical mountains in Africa (including the Cameroon Highlands), the Macaronesian islands (Canary Islands, Madeira), western North America, East Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere. Anacolia menziesii, the most widely recorded species, has been documented in western North America and Macaronesia, with reports from New Zealand.
