*1: Chyenhal near
Newlyn, 1844, AG (PNZ) (Paton 1969a:
731).
*2: Near Frogmore, NE.
of Truro,
1861, ES (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
731).
Occurs as scattered plants, or where plentiful
forming rather open low turfs. Habitat notes from C&S are
as follows. Grows on damp often water-retentive soils (of
clayey, loam, humic or peaty textures, often on thin soil over
granitic, slaty or serpentinite rocks; substrates often ±
acidic, sometimes circumneutral; mostly in open or on
N.-facing banks, less often partly shaded e.g. by grasses or
Grey Willows, or in rock crevices, rarely in heavier shade).
Commonest on and above sea-cliffs where most sites are on
steep banks (e.g. beside streams or flushes) or on flushed
grassland slopes. Also frequent up to several kilometres
inland on heathland of the Lizard pen. (in acidic flushes, on
almost flat ground and banks at edges of paths and old tracks,
on partly bare areas in wet heath, in old quarries). There are
few other records inland, including one on disturbed soil of
unshaded bank near a reservoir (on Bodmin Moor), a bank within
an ancient earthwork (St Piran's Round near Rose), and ditch
banks of a heathy clearing in spruce plantations. Unusual
records were on soil of an unshaded wall-top (inland on the
Lizard pen.) and of a few stems c.fr. almost overgrown by Fissidens bryoides
var. bryoides
on soil of low bank shaded inside a grove of tall
deciduous trees near coast. Associates recorded are Archidium
alternifolium, Bryum rubens, Calypogeia arguta, Calypogeia fissa, Cephalozia
bicuspidata, Ephemerum serratum, Diplophyllum albicans,
Solenostoma
gracillimum, Pohlia
annotina, rarely Cephaloziella dentata,
Fossombronia
'husnotii', Riccia
beyrichiana, Cladonia
sp.
Because of the risk of confusion with other
Funariaceae, only recorded when capsules are present. However,
almost all but young plants appear to bear capsules. Capsules
immature 1-7, 9, 11, 12; dehiscing [1], 3, 5-8 [11]; dehisced
3-8 [11 old].