*1: Newlyn Cliffs,
1861, WC (PNZ) (Paton 1969a:
731).
*2: Trehane near
Probus, undated [but pre-1866], ES (TRU)
(Paton 1969a: 731).
Habitat notes from Cornwall are as follows. Grows
as scattered plants, small patches or low turfs of small
extent. Occurs on partly bare, persistently damp soil (loamy,
clayey or humic, less often thin soil over rocks; of mildly
acidic to circumneutral reaction; in places that are commonly
somewhat sheltered or N.-facing but otherwise mostly unshaded
to lightly or partly shaded, less often well shaded e.g. by
grasses and herbs, only occasionally by trees). Sometimes
apparently a colonist where bare soil is temporarily exposed,
but E. attenuatus more
typically grows in places where bare substrates persist for
years on steep banks. It is commonest on and near sea-cliffs,
especially on moist steep banks beside flushes and where small
streams reach the coast, but recorded also on soil exposed in
steep grassland on a cliff and among rocks in a coastal
quarry. Three records inland were from steep earth or clay
banks (in heathland, a laneside and beside a churchyard
path).
Distinct from other Funariaceae in the bright
purple (cerise) colour of the rhizoids, but almost always
recorded c.fr. Capsules immature 4-6; dehiscing 2, 3, 5, 6, 9;
dehisced 2-6, 9, 12.
