*1:Penzance, 1844, AG
(PNZ) (Paton 1969a:
730).
*2: Slate quarries,
Camelford, 1886, HND (ABS) (Paton 1969a:
730).
Grows in tufts or small to rather large patches.
Habitat notes from Cornwall are as follows. Usually the most
hygrophilous of our Racomitrium spp. Most
plentiful beside streams, small rivers and reservoirs, growing
above normal water-levels but within flood-zones (typically
0.1-2.0 m above summer water-level), but also and mainly in
small amounts away from water in mostly very humid places.
Mainly grows on hard acidic rocks (granitic and slaty; once
apparently on gabbro; on horizontal to sloping or vertical
surfaces), e.g. on tops of boulders in and beside streams and
on streamside outcrops, walls or bridges. Also away from
water-courses on boulders, walls, or on horizontal damp or wet
rocks of tracks; in and beside woodland or groves of trees, by
roadsides, in old quarries, low on a rocky hillside, in a
cemetery, and on a 'hedge'. Grows unshaded, part shaded or
sometimes moderately shaded by trees. Unusual records on slate
roof of a building and, in moderate amount, on damp old tarmac
of track partly shaded by trees. Plentiful on cast-iron of old
pipe above river bank, lightly shaded by trees. Associates
often include Sciuro-hypnum
plumosum, Hyocomium
armoricum, Thamnobryum
alopecurum, sometimes Isothecium holtii, Plagiochila
porelloides.
Frequently/commonly cfr; capsules immature 2, 4, 5,
8, 10-12; dehiscing 4, 5; dehisced 3, 5.