This checklist is intended to give an overall view of the distribution of tropical African mosses. A decade has past since the publication of the last checklist for mosses of sub-Saharan Africa by Brian O'Shea in 2006. This work is still widely used though is increasing becoming out of date. The aim of this project is to put the checklist online and ultimately update it with the latest taxonomic information.
In 2006, the checklist listed 2746 moss taxa for sub-Saharan Africa. Each distribution record was supported by a literature reference and 7697 African synonyms and annotations were included, also supported by references, giving a total of 849 references.