ИСТИНА

Paraphyllia and pseudoparaphyllia are two terms which are important in pleurocarpous mosses systematics, yet their misapplication continues. Paraphyllia are treated as adventive structures (appendages) of stem epidermis, in contrast to foliose or filamentose structures around branch primordia commonly referred to the pseudoparaphyllia. One of the reasons for that misapplication is the neglected fact that proximal branch leaves are often not only incised, but sometimes subdivided up to the base, and moreover, their parts might occur spaced from each other to a certain distance, looking as independent subfilamentose structures, which we called compound leaves. Especially puzzling are cases, when compound proximal branch leaves appear around undeveloped branch primordia. These leaves apparently belong to “virtual branch” as they have clear phyllotaxis, as e.g. Leskea and Cratoneuron, The branch apical cells in this case appear to be hidden almost totally under the stem epidermis. Such filamentose parts of compound branch leaves we suggest to call Leskea-type paraphyllia. There are at least two cases where paraphyllia have likely a different type. In genera with papillose stem, e.g. Pelekium, there are transitions from unicellular to multicellular raisings on each cell of the stem surface, pointing thus the homology with papillae, comprising Pelekium-type paraphyllia. The third, Climacium-type paraphyllia is observed in Climacium and Pleuroziopsis. In this case paraphyllia occur in longitudinal rows along the stem, without any connection to primordial, and possess many characters of rhizoids. New observations in anatomy allow circumscribe Leskea-type of paraphyllia in details, revealing facilitation its development by exogenous ABA application.