The spectra of 23 species of mosses belonging to different kinds of peristomes were determined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Based on comparing the differences in the spectra of five representative species, four ranges of 1790-1330 cm(-1), 1200-960 cm(-1), 895-830 cm(-1) and 725-655 cm(-1) were selected as the characteristic spectra for analysis. The results show that hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal components analysis (PCA) using the second derivatives FTIR spectra can effectively identify five kinds of mosses: Sphagnidae, Nematodontae, Acrocarpi-Haplolepideae, Acrocarpi-Diplolepideae, and Pleurocarpi-Diplolepideae, which are well suited for the known moss systems based on peristome structure. Therefore, FTIR spectra combined with chemometrics can be used as a useful tool in systematic research on bryophytes.