Photo
by Dr M Lueth ©.
First vice-county records of F. viridulus s. l.:
*1: Trungle Moor near
Paul, 1861, WC (PNZ) (Paton 1969a:
711-712).
*2: Wadebridge, 1896,
RVT (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
711-712).
First vice-county records of F. viridulus s.
str.:
*1: Earthy bank at back
of shore, Watermill Cove, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, 1984,
JAP & DGL (BBSUK) (Hill 1985: 23). [F. viridulus s. str. was previously
listed as confirmed for vc1 by Corley 1980: 207, but without
any details].
*2: F. viridulus s. str. listed as
confirmed for vc2 by Corley (1980: 207), but without any
details.
See notes under
F.
crispus and F.
pusillus s. str. for comments
on taxonomic delimitation of F.
viridulus.
Grows as scattered plants or forms open patches or
lawns. Habitat records from C&S are as follows. A colonist
of bare or partly bare soil, often where clayey or loamy and
moist at least in winter, but avoiding very wet or very dry
sites. Apparently prefers less acidic soils than those
tolerated by F. bryoides var. bryoides, typically
occurring on circumneutral to mildly basic substrates.
Commonly on banks such as beside lanes, by ditches and
streams, in pastures and at field edges, inside woodland, Grey
Willow-carr and groves of trees, on and above sea-cliffs, also
on disturbed soil of soil heaps, soil exposed by wind-thrown
trees, in gardens, field gateways, churchyards and a cemetery,
on 'hedges', beside a path, and among mine-spoil. Once near
edge of arable field (cereal stubble). Often partly shaded,
but recorded from fully insolated sites and also from places
heavily shaded by scrub or trees or in holes in banks. On
Isles of Scilly recorded several times on steep soft sandstone
(of Pleistocene raised-beach deposits) well inside shallow
caves low on sea-cliffs, often with F. crispus, or as non-fertile
plants that are hard to place as either of these species. Also
on low shale cliffs 1.5-2.0 m above HWST level of estuarine
creeks. Atypical records elsewhere from thin silt over dead
wood of horizontal tree trunk lying over stream, on crumbling
vertical concrete of old weir, on hard 'soil' exposed by
falling water-level of reservoir, on vertical face of old
house-brick, with other low mosses on old brickwork, on very
thin 'soil' over vertical rock in shade near stream.
Associates include many small mosses that colonise
circum-neutral soils, e.g. Didymodon insulanus,
Funaria
hygrometrica, Pohlia melanodon, Pseudephemerum
nitidum, Tortula
truncata; occasionally Bryum sauteri, Pleuridium
subulatum.
Commonly c.fr. [not recorded without well-grown
capsules]: capsules immature 1-4 [5], 7, 10-12; dehiscing 1-8,
11, 12; dehisced 2-5,
7.
