*1: Lambourne Hill, 1926, FR (BM) (Paton
1969a: 737).
*2: Near Doublebois, 1962, JAP (BBSUK) (Paton
1969a: 737).
This species was poorly understood before the
revision by Crundwell & Nyholm (1964); older records are
given only where determinations of old specimens have been
revised more recently.
Habitat notes from C&S are as follows. Not
usually in arable fields or on other ground that is regularly
tilled, but one record of small patch from partly bare ground
well inside field of cereal stubble (with Bryum dichotomum) and
patches in horticultural field (with Barbula convoluta
var. sardoa, Barbula
unguiculata, Bryum
dichotomum,
Dicranella staphylina). Unshaded
gritty soil on floor of old quarries. Damp soil along old,
part shaded tracks; on disused railway track. Partly bare soil
in field gateways; on grave in cemetery. Disturbed soil on
unshaded tracks and at their edges. Clay soil of lightly
shaded bank besideBude
Canal.
Thin sandy soil of ledge in old quarry in dune grassland.
Gravelly tracks, e.g. in churchyards, near coast and across
heath, in gateway (with Didymodon insulanus).
Thin soil of unshaded gravel car parks. On flat, unshaded,
partly bare ground in area of sandy, old, copper-mine spoil.
Thin sandy soil at edge of track in old copper-mine area near
coast, unshaded. Unshaded soil of heap at edge of old mine
area. Soil on lightly shaded top of 'hedge', with Conocephalum conicum.
Track in conifer plantation, partly shaded. Associates
recorded include Barbula convoluta, Barbula unguiculata, Bryum dichotomum, Bryum rubens, Dicranella
staphylina,
Dicranella varia,
Fissidens incurvus,
Microbryum davallianum, Microbryum rectum, Phascum cuspidatum
var.
cuspidatum, Pohlia
melanodon, Tortula
modica, Tortula
truncata.
All but young plants probably always with rhizoidal
tubers, although these sometimes sparse. Not reliably recorded
c.fr. [noted as having immature capsules with plants from
patch on thin soil over old concrete on wall of ruin, which
were thought to be B. radiculosum when
collected, but these had dull purple papillose rhizoids with
pink-red tubers, unfortunately specimens not
kept].
