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Analysis of an extensive new molecular dataset for the moss class Polytrichopsida provides convincing support for many traditionally recognised genera and identifies higher level phylogenetic structure with a strong geographic component. A large apical clade that is most diverse in the northern hemisphere is subtended by a grade of southern temperate and tropical genera, while the earliest diverging lineages have widely separated relictual distributions. However, there is strongly supported topological incongruence between the nuclear 18S rRNA gene tree and the chloroplast and mitochondrial data for the positions of some taxa and notably for the status of Pogonatum. While Pogonatum is unambiguously paraphyletic in the 18S tree, it is well supported as monophyletic by the combined chloroplast and mitochondrial data, this being corroborated by several distinctive morphological synapomorphies and a 51 …