{{Short description|Genus of mosses}} {{speciesbox | image = Wardia hygrometrica imported from iNaturalist photo 15408542 on 18 February 2023.jpg | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite IUCN |last1=Cholo |first1=F. |year=2010 |title=''Wardia hygrometrica'' |volume=2010 |article-number=e.T185397A8403041 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T185397A8403041.en |access-date=19 May 2024}}</ref> | display_parents = 4 | genus = Wardia | parent_authority = Harv. & Hook. | species = hygrometrica | authority = Harv. & Hook. | synonyms = *''Fontinalis duthieae'' <small>Dixon</small> *''Neckera hygrometrica'' <small>(Harv. & Hook.) Müll.Hal.</small> | synonyms_ref = <ref name=WFO>{{cite web |title=''Wardia hygrometrica'' Harv. & Hook. |url=https://wfoplantlist.org/taxon/wfo-0001161268-2023-12 |website=WFO Plant List |publisher=World Flora Online |access-date=19 May 2024}}</ref> }}

'''''Wardia''''' is a monotypic genus of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae; it contains only the species '''''Wardia hygrometrica''''', "an aquatic moss endemic to the Western Cape province of South Africa."<ref name="Hedderson 1999">Hedderson, Terry A., Cymon J. Cox, & J. George Gibbins. 1999. Phylogenetic Relationships of the Wardiaceae (Musci); Evidence from 18s rRNA and rps4 Gene Sequences. ''The Bryologist'' '''102 (1):''' 26-31.</ref> It is the only endemic moss family in South Africa.<ref name=Sanbi>{{cite web |title=Wardia hygrometrica {{!}} PlantZAfrica |url=http://pza.sanbi.org/wardia-hygrometrica |website=pza.sanbi.org |access-date=28 July 2022}}</ref> As it is an aquatic moss, it was first classified in the Fontinalaceae (and in the order of Isobryales<ref>{{cite web |title=Isobryales |url=https://www.gbif.org/species/619 |website=www.gbif.org |access-date=28 July 2022 |language=en}}</ref>), but molecular studies have shown that it is more closely related to the Dicranaceae.

The genus name of ''Wardia'' is in honour of Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791&ndash;1868), who was an English doctor.<ref>{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 }}</ref >The specific epithet ''hygrometrica'' refers to the hygroscopic nature of the seta (stalk).<ref name=Sanbi/>

The genus was circumscribed by William Henry Harvey and William Jackson Hooker in Companion Bot. Mag. 2 on page 183 in 1837.

==Description== It forms small to large, yellow-green or usually blackish green mats. The stems are 15-80&nbsp;mm long and black below when old. The stems branch irregularly above the basal part (stipe). The leaves are evenly spaced, spreading to erect-appressed when dry, although variable in shape and length, they are generally broadly elliptical and up to 2.2&nbsp;mm long. The leaf cells are narrow and thick-walled. The midrib of the leaf is extremely variable: ranging from absent, present only in the leaf base, discontinuous and present only at the apex and base, or strong throughout. The cells at the basal margins of the leaf (alar cells - which control the leaf's movement) are strongly differentiated, enlarged and inflated, hyaline to yellowish.<ref name=Sanbi/>

==Habitat== It grows on rocks, either submerged or in splash-zones of fast-flowing mountain streams and waterfalls.<ref name=Sanbi/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Taxonbar|from1=Q13091256|from2=Q7969160}}

Category:Dicranaceae Category:Monotypic moss genera Category:Taxa named by William Henry Harvey Category:Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker Category:Plants described in 1837 Category:Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces

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