*1: Trefusis Point,
Falmouth, 1839, EAW
(TRU) (Paton 1969a: 714).
*2:Tregawn, Withiel,
1879, RVT (B) (Paton 1969a:
714).
Grows as scattered stems (often among other mosses)
or forms small dense patches. Habitat notes from C&S are
as follows. On exposed soil (gravelly, loamy or clayey),
usually acidic, in grassland, arable fields (four records in
stubbles, once each at edge of cereal field, in horticulture
and a grass-ley, but apparently not common in arable land), on
old tracks, floors of quarries, on and above cliffs, on banks
(including stream and laneside banks) or 'hedges', in woodland
clearings on disturbed soil, on graves, or on soil-heaps.
Often unshaded, or shaded only by grasses and herbs, but
sometimes among other mosses on banks, slopes or in crevices
of 'hedges' where partly shaded by trees. Usually not in wet
places. Associates noted include Bryum dichotomum, Bryum rubens, Bryum sauteri, Bryum subapiculatum,
Cephalozia
bicuspidata, Ceratodon purpureus,
Dicranella
staphylina, Ditrichum
heteromallum, Trichodon cylindricus,
Kindbergia
praelonga, Fissidens bryoides
var. bryoides,
Fossombronia
pusilla, Phaeoceros
laevis, Pogonatum
aloides, Pohlia
lutescens, Pseudephemerum
nitidum, Riccia
subbifurca, Scleropodium touretii,
Tortula truncata,
Trichostomum
brachydontium, Sedum anglicum; more
rarely Anthoceros
punctatus, Bryum
bornholmense, Epipterygium tozeri,
Pleuridium
subulatum, Riccia
sorocarpa, Weissia
longifolia var.
longifolia.
Less usual sites: on steeply sloping, gravelly,
acidic soil of ditch-side at edge of heath; soil on old,
metal-contamined mine-spoil (several records, but mostly in
small amounts); on banks and flat areas of china clay spoil;
on track in old china-clay works (Georgia); on unshaded soil
on top of low wall of ruin (Botallack).
Commonly c.fr. [almost all records are of plants
with capsules]: capsules immature 1-5, 10-12; 'dehiscing' [see
below] 1-8 [9]; 'dehisced' 3 [5]. Capsules full of mature
spores become detached from drying plants, whence they
commonly disperse intact. Spores may also sometimes be
liberated as capsules decay on plants that remain or become
wet.
