*1: Peaty ground, Black
Head, Lizard, SW71, 4 April 1962, EFW (OXF)
(Crundwell & Whitehouse 2001: 174). Older records (e.g. in
Paton 1969a: 736) were based on misidentified B.
rubens.
*2: On soil on disturbed bank of
pool west ofTemple
SX17, 18
Apr. 1998, DTH (DTH) (Crundwell &
Whitehouse 2001: 174). Older records (e.g. in Paton 1969a:
736) were based on misidentified B.
rubens.
Not reported from Cornwall until after it was
redescribed by Crundwell & Nyholm (1964). However,
uncertainty about distinctions between this species and
Bryum rubens
persisted from the early 1960s until revisions by ACC and
HLKW during 1996-1998 found numerous specimens had been
misidentified (see Crundwell & Whitehouse 2001). Records
older than 1996 are thus only accepted here when voucher
specimens have been checked recently (these include a few
based on vouchers that were subsequently lost in the post),
plus records made by DTH in 1994 and 1995 that are known to
have used reliable characters. This results in rejection of
numerous records shown in Atlas
3: 129, including all those shown from vc2
(new first vc2 record is therefore DTH 98-109
from SX17G, conf. ACC and HLKW 1998). The older records thus
considerably under-record a locally common
moss.
Habitat notes from Cornwall are as follows.
Apparently restricted to acid soils in places that are not
subject to frequent disturbance; unrecorded on arable fields.
Mainly bare, humic and acid, often moist acid soil along and
beside old tracks or paths and on disturbed areas in
heathland, sometimes abundant, in open or lightly shaded
(associates mainly Archidium
alternifolium, Campylopus
introflexus,
Campylopus pyriformis, Ceratodon
purpureus,
Dicranella heteromalla, Trichodon
cylindricus,
Kindbergia praelonga, Pleuridium
acuminatum, Pohlia
camptotrachela,
Weissia sp., also recorded with Atrichum tenellum);
and on soil heap at edge of heathland, unshaded. Acidic soil
on disturbed banks of pool in old china clay pit, unshaded. On
sparsely vegetated china clay spoil. On partly bare patch of
soil in grassland (of Festuca rubra) low on
exposed sea cliff (with Bryum dichotomum).
Partly bare patches of soil on top and slopes of exposed
granitic and serpentinite sea-cliffs. Unshaded soil on 'hedge'
above slaty sea-cliffs. Bare soil patches in grass-ley. On
partly bare loamy acidic soil of laneside bank, partly shaded
by trees, with Pohlia
lutescens. On soil exposed at entrance to animal burrow on
slope of mined ground well shaded by trees. Thin damp soil
over gabbro boulder partly shaded in Grey Willow scrub (with
Bryum rubens, Ephemerum serratum
s. l., Fossombronia
husnotii, Riccia
beyrichiana, Riccia
subbifurca).
Only recorded with rhizoidal tubers. At least seven
records c.fr.: capsules immature 1, 2, 4, 6 [near ripe 6];
dehiscing 7; dehisced 7.
