*1: Newlyn Cliff, 1840,
WC (OXF) (Paton 1969a:
693).
*2: Fowey, 1906, RWS
(TRU) (Paton 1969a:
693).
Doubtless under-recorded since non-fertile plants
were often seen but placed as this species only when showing
numerous fine branches. Paton (1999: 529) noted that dark
green but non-fertile Pellia on basic
substrates can normally be safely identified as this species,
but in Cornwall it is often unclear
whether the substrate really is basic.
Habitat notes from Cornwall are as follows. On
rocks or firm soil (clay, loam, slightly basic to
circumneutral) from horizontal to inclined, close above water
level in ditches, streams and rivers or higher in flood-zone,
commonly in shade of deciduous woodland, groves of trees or
Grey Willows, less often unshaded, e.g. in open above
sea-cliffs; often forming pure patches (associates may include
Kindbergia
praelonga, Fissidens bryoides
var. bryoides,
Conocephalum
conicum, Lunularia
cruciata; rarely Leiocolea turbinata).
On soil on or near masonry of walls, in mill-race, lightly to
moderately shaded. Common on thin clay film or wet soil over
and amongst old vertical concrete or mortared stone walls e.g.
of ruins, especially at wall bases, lightly shaded to
moderately shaded. On steep damp slaty rock of crags near
stream, in shaded road cutting and old quarries in deciduous
woodland. Vertical flushed soil of banks and on slopes above
N.-facing sea-cliffs (with Aneura pinguis, Riccardia
chamedryfolia). On unshaded granite of flush on exposed
sea-cliff (with Bryum
pseudotriquetrum, Oxyrrhynchium
speciosum). Clayey soil of low bank at lake edge. With low
mosses in unshaded, calcareous flush on sandy ground above
sea-cliff (with Didymodon tophaceus).
In edge of flush above stream bank in deciduous woodland. On
open, flushed, calcareous sand of floor of sandpit in dunes
(with Aneura
pinguis, Bryum
pseudotriquetrum, Calliergonella
cuspidata, Cratoneuron filicinum,
Drepanocladus
aduncus, Petalophyllum
ralfsii). Other associates recorded include Cratoneuron filicinum,
Thamnobryum
alopecurum; rarely Dumortiera
hirsuta).
Often c.per. (7, 10, 12). Occasionally c.fr. (3 DTH
records in
Cornwall
): capsules immature
2, 3, dehiscing 4, dehisced 3.
