ISSN: 2287-688X Annals of Plant Sciences Vol. 9, Issue 3, (2020) pp. 3761-3766 Research Article *Corresponding Author: Professor B. Ravi Prasad Rao, E-mail: biodiversityravi@gmail.com http://dx.doi.org/10.21746/aps.2020.9.3.3 Page | 3761 Pseudephemerum (Limb.) I. Hagen (Dicranaceae, Dicranales, Bryopsida) A new generic record to Peninsular India. Ananthaneni Sreenath and Boyina Ravi Prasad Rao* Biodiversity Conservation Division, Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ananthapuramu -515003, Andhra Pradesh. Abstract: Pseudephemerum (Limb.) I. Hagen, represented by P. nitidum (Hedw.) Loeske, collected from the forests of Banda Village, Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh is a new generic record to Peninsular India. Keywords: Pseudephemerum; Generic record; Peninsular India. Introduction The Peninsular India comprises eight states viz., Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Mah- arashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana and one union territory, Pondicherry. Bounded by Indian Ocean on south, Vindhyan Mountains in the north, Bay of Bengal in the east and Arabian sea in the west, geographically the region is divided into Deccan Plateau, Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats (Singh and Jayanthi, 2012). The Deccan Plateau is the largest Plateau in India. The Western Ghats cover an area of 1,64,280 sq. km, starts from south of the Tapti River and runs about 1600 kilometers, pass through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karn- ataka, Kerala and end at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu (Nayar et al., 2014). The Eastern Ghats are an assemblage of discontinuous hill ranges located down the east side of Peninsular India and the ranges cover an area 75,000 km 2 , which passes through the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and small portions of Karnataka (Sreenath and Rao, 2019). The study area, Andhra Pradesh is the seventh largest state in Indian union covering about 162, 970 km 2 and lies between 12°37ʹ and 19º 25ʹ N. Latitude and 76º 45ʹ and 84º 72ʹ E. Longitude. Altitude ranges from sea level to 1690 m. The state comprises 13 districts; four of them consti- tute Rayalaseema region and nine districts, Coastal Andhra. Of the total geographical area, 17.86% is under forest cover (FSI, 2019). Past studies on bryoflora of different regions in Peninsular India include: Mosses of Eastern India (Gangulee, 1969-1980); India (Dandotiya et al., 2011); Moss flora of India (Alam 2015); Moss flora of Central India (Alam et al., 2015); West- ern Ghats of Maharashtra (Magdum et al., 2017); Bryophytes Karnataka (Singh and Singh et al., 2018); Kerala (Bryophytes of Kerala, 2020; Tamil Nadu (Daniel et al., 2010); Odisha (Mishra et al., 2016) and Andhra Pradesh Rao et al., (1999); Sowghandika (2010); Sandhya Rani et al. (2011a, 2011b & 2012); Sowghandika et al., (2011); Pull- aiah et al. (2012) and Sandhya Rani et al., (2014). As a part of our explorations in Andhra Pradesh for bryophytes, during 2017 we could collect some curious acrocarpus moss plant specimens from Banda Reserve forest, Near Varaha River, Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh. Critical examination of the specimens revealed its identification with Pseudephemerum nitidum (Hedw.) Loeske.