Hybridization in Mosses and How Remote It Could Be

Abstract

The paper presents a literature review of the published data on hybridization in mosses. Interspecies hybridization in mosses can be observed only in sporophytes and therefore is recognizable by morphology only when sporophyte structure in parent species is contrastingly different. A hybrid (or recombinant) character of gametophytes can be nowadays detected with genetic markers. Although the overall number of studied hybrids is not that large, the observed proportion of intersectional, intergeneric, and even interfamily hybrids indicates a more widespread occurrence of remote hybridization in mosses as compared to vascular plants.