A richly illustrated, full-colour identification guide to almost 500 mosses, liverworts and hornworts in southern Australia. The book includes an introduction to the bryophytes, information on the collection, storage and naming of specimens, indentification keys, descriptions, thumb-nail anatomical sketches and more than 250 beautiful colour photographs.

Numerous taxonomic revisions and a substantial amount of additional floristic information have become available since the publication of Streimann & Curnow's Catalogue of Mosses of Australia and its External Territories in 1989. Monographs of Australian families and genera have included descriptions of many new taxa and the reduction of an even larger number of names to synonymy. Moreover, many taxa have been newly reported from Australia, while other Australian records have proved to be based on misidentifications or could not otherwise be confirmed. Taxonomic revisions from other regions have also resulted in many name changes among Australian taxa, and floristic research has provided numerous new State and Territory records.

This entirely new English edition, comprehensively revised and edited by T.L. Blockeel, has been translated from German, with some additional text, by the authors. In a single volume, this work provides users with the means of making at least a preliminary identification of any bryophyte or fern which they might encounter in Europe or Macaronesia.

150 genera and 869 accepted species and infraspecific taxa of liverworts and hornworts are listed from the eight States and mainland Territories of Australia. Genera and species are listed alphabetically, and c. 1100 synonyms that have been applied to Australian specimens are inserted under the appropriate species name. Nomina nuda, names of uncertain application and those reported in error from Australia are appended. Each species entry is accompanied by a list of post-1982 literature that provides locality details, descriptions, identification keys and/or habitat information. This completes a modern trio of catalogues on the Australian lichen and bryophyte floras, together comprising more than 5,000 taxa and representing a significant component of the national biota.