Abstract
The genus Schoenobryum Dozy & Molk., fifteen species in the world, fourteen of these are present in the Neotropics. The genus has not been taxonomically reviewed for this region until now. Therefore, we performed a morphological study with a phenetic perspective assessing the state of a set of characters in representative specimens from several important herbarium collections. We built a basic data matrix which was run using two computerized statistical packages. In this statistical exploration, we used principal component, cluster, and similarity analysis, whose results were later corroborated by checking each character and a thru a biogeographical analysis. Additionally, a peristome anatomical study was made to describe its anatomy. A taxonomic treatment is presented that involves a new circumscription of the genus with only the species S. julaceum Dozy & Molk. for the Neotropics, whose synonyms are: S. coffeae (C. Müll.) Manuel, S. gardneri (Mitt.) Manuel, S. paraguensis (Besch.) Manuel, S. rubricaule (Mitt.) Manuel, S. julaceum var. costaricensis (Ren. et Card.) Manuel.