*1: Derelict china clay works,Georgia,
Penzance, 1966, JAP
(BBSUK) [replaces previous record (mortar of
damp stone bridge over stream, St Mawgan, near Newquay, May
1961, JAP, in Warburg 1962: 370 and Paton 1969a: 725) which is
Leptobarbula
berica] (Blockeel 1988:
35).
*2: Damp bricks of old
kiln, derelict brickworks, Carbis, NW. of Bugle, Feb. 1963,
JAP (BBSUK) (Warburg 1964: 726, Paton 1969a:
725).
Possibly somewhat under-recorded before 1998 owing
to confusion with Gymnostomum viridulum
(see note under that species).
Grows as scattered plants or occasionally forming
denser very low (< 5 mm) lawns, but not in compact tufts.
Notes on habitats in Cornwall are as follows. A calciphile
that occurs on vertical, sloping or horizontal soft masonry
(old mortar, less often old bricks or old concrete) and thin
firm overlying soil. Grows on free-draining substrates, where
insolated or more often partly to rather heavily shaded (e.g.
by tall bushes or woodland), and usually in sheltered and
often rather humid situations (e.g. on or at base of N.-facing
walls, among buildings, near streams, in quarries, near a
well). Commonest in crevices of old walls, including those of
old mine buildings, a disused china-clay dry, old mills, a
bridge and old garden, churchyard and cemetery walls. Less
often found on wall tops and large ledges than Gymnostomum viridulum.
Commonly occurs on otherwise bare substrates, or close to
sparse low mosses that sometimes include Bryum radiculosum, Didymodon tophaceus
and Gymnostomum
viridulum.
Protonemal gemmae always (?) present, although
sometimes sparse. A dioicous species in which some populations
are apparently all-female, others apparently all-male (much
less commonly according to Atlas
2). Occasionally c.fr. (four records):
capsules immature 3, dehisced 2, 10.
Occasional occurrence of a form of this species
with more or less narrowly tapering tips to perichaetial
leaves (DTH 99-55, 01-12) may cast doubt on
records of Leptobarbula
berica from St Mawgan, despite re-checking of its
specimens by MOH, HLKW and DTH.
