Photo
by Dr M Lueth ©.
*1: St Mary's, 1908,
GBS (RAMM) (Paton 1969a:
725).
*2:Restormel Castle, 1961, JAP
(BBSUK) (Paton 1969a: 725). [Earlier report
(Saltash, EMH, in Tellam 1888) not supported by specimen:
Paton 1969a: 725].
Grows as low lawns or smaller patches. Notes on
habitats in C&S are as follows. Occurs mainly on sandy and
other soils in Cornwall, contrary to statement in the Flora that it is
'never on soil' (Smith 1978: 265) and the Atlas which noted that
'Although it is widespread on well-illuminated rock-outcrops,
such as limestone, in most districts it is more frequent on
walls' (T.L. Blockeel in Hill et al. 1992: 280),
although the latter account adds that it is 'also frequent on
hard or stony calcareous ground and in short dry turf'.
Commonest in Cornwall in areas of very
short vegetation on calcareous sand in dune grassland, where
it may be locally abundant as reported by Paton (1969: 725).
Also occurs in similar habitats where blown-sand rests on
coastal hillslopes, cliffs and cliff tops. Scattered and less
common on free-draining basic soil in a variety of other
situations with very short or sparse vegetation, including
compressed soil of pathways, thin soil on walls and over old
concrete and tarmac and in small earth-filled crevices in
calcareous masonry. Such records are from coastal and inland
sites, including edges of paths and tracks, cemeteries,
churchyards (on paths and graves), plant nurseries, an
unsurfaced car park, gravel at disused railway station and an
old quarry. Also occurs on dry stony calcareous soil of open
areas of old mine-spoil near coasts and inland, especially a
few years after disturbance or at edges of old paths and
trackways. There are five records from tops of old and ruined
walls, mainly on crumbling mortar and a single record from old
tarmac of a track. Grows mainly in fully insolated sites, but
persists locally in partly shaded places as rank grass, herbs
or bushes begin to colonise its habitats. Frequent associates
include Barbula
convoluta, Didymodon acutus, Didymodon fallax, Didymodon insulanus,
Trichostomum
brachydontium; others recorded include Cephaloziella
stellulifera, Lophozia
excisa.
Unrecorded c.fr. in Cornwall and rarely fertile elsewhere in
Britain.
An atypical form from thin soil on wall tops of
mine building ruins in Crow's Nest/Minions area may merit
further study: plain green, with very narrowly attenuate leaf
apex.
