A Preliminary Survey for Mosses in Nurseries of Mosul City With New Record of Three Species

Abstract

The collection and study of Bryophyte plants in Mesopotamia began in the 16^th century AD through the expeditions that flourished at that time. Since that time up to 2025, all published works, on this plant group, were limited to the country's natural ecosystems, while man-made ecosystems were completely neglected. This was the motivation behind directing our efforts toward artificial or man-made ecosystems and conduct a preliminary survey for the species inhabiting them, in order to supplement the available information about them. The present contribution is considered the first survey in Iraq related with the mosses of the manmade ecosystems (i.e.) the nurseries. Mosul city center was chosen for this purpose. The survey covered 7 nurseries, all located in the left side of Tigris river. The results revealed that the recorded species belong to one class of division Bryophyta, 5 orders, 6 families, 11 genera and 19 species, among them, the following three species: Bryum muehlenbeckii Bruch & Schimp., Entosthodon fasicularis (Hedwig) Müller Hal. and Leptobryum pyriforme (Hedw.) Wilson were considered new addition to the Iraqi bryoflora. Distribution of the species in the nurseries and the richness of each nursery with moss species were widely varied.