Brachythecium salebrosum

Mosses and lichens accumulate nickel readily and at least nine species are used to monitor environmental gradients of nickel (Jenkins 1980a). Maximum concentrations of nickel found in whole lichens and mosses from nickel-contaminated areas range between 420 and 900 mg/kg DW vs. 12 mg/kg DW from reference sites (Jenkins 1980a). Nickel concentrations in herbarium mosses worldwide have increased dramatically during this century. In one case, nickel concentrations in Brachythecium salebrosum from Montreal, Canada, rose from 6 mg/kg DW in 1905 to 105 mg/kg DW in 1971 (Richardson etal. 1980). 

The genera of Brachytheciaceae are quite diverse with respect to the level of substitution/indel events within the tmL intron (Appendices 6.1 and 6.2). Very few (0 to 3) substitution/indel events are observed in all members of the Homalothecioideae, most members of the Brachythecioideae (with the exception of Sciuro-hypmm and four species closely related to Brachythecium salebrosum, which have a long insertion), as well as basal groups of the Helicodontioideae (Squamidium clade),... 

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