*1: Trengwainton gravel pits, Penzance, 1863, WC (PNZ) (Paton 1969a:
733); (vc1 listed without details by Lewis & Smith 1978:
24, as P.
proligera).
*2: Fowey, 1905, RWS (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
733); this record is older than that listed as new for vc2 by
Warburg (1962: 372). (Vc2 listed without details by Lewis
& Smith 1978: 24, as P.
proligera).
Distinctions between this and some allied species
were confused until the revision by Lewis & Smith (1978).
Those authors and Smith (1978) continued to confuse P. annotina with P. proligera (Kindb.)
Lindb. ex Broth., the distinctions between them being pointed
out by Shaw (1981). P. proligera s. str. does not occur
in Cornwall.
The morphology of the bulbils differs widely among
local populations of P. annotina in Cornwall
as elsewhere, but the extreme types appear to be
connected by a
range of intermediates. It seems likely that much as in Bryum dichotomum the
varying size and form of the bulbils confers a range of
adaptations for dispersal within a genetically variable,
mainly clonal species.
Grows as scattered plants, in pure populations or
mixed with other low bryophytes, sometimes forming patches or
low lawns. Habitat notes from C&S are as follows. Occurs
mainly if not entirely on acidic substrates, typically as a
colonist on partly bare mineral 'soils' of gravelly, sandy,
silty, clayey or loamy textures, but sometimes also on humic
substrates, firm mud, or growing erect from thick carpets of
liverworts such as Cephaloziella spp., Gymnocolea inflata and
Solenostoma
gracillimum. Large populations frequently occur on
substrates with high concentrations of copper and probably
other heavy metals, but it is often common also on china-clay
spoil and other substrates with minimal metal concentrations.
It occurs in a range of places that vary from free draining
ridge-tops to moist hollows and seasonally inundated sediments
beside rivers, pools and reservoirs, most commonly in the open
but also in light to heavy shade (e.g. in deep hollows in
banks or inside woodland).
The largest populations occur on old mining ground,
where it is sometimes abundant, especially in hollows prone to
seasonal flooding and also on banks of streams draining old
mine areas. The wide range of other habitats recorded includes
ditch, stream and river banks, paths and path edges (e.g. in a
churchyard), tracks and their edges (e.g. on heathland,
through open Grey Willow carr, in young conifer plantation, in
a disused railway cutting, and near a pool in acid grassland),
damp field gateways, wet soil in marshes and flushes (where
often on hummocks or steep low banks), woodland clearings,
soil on open areas in acid grassland, soil heaps on disturbed
ground, soil in crevices of Cornish hedges and old walls, in
granite quarries (on soil on slopes, banks and thin soil among
rocks), in and around working china clay quarries and on their
spoil heaps (on banks and flat areas), edges of mica dams, and
inundation zones (of reservoirs and an old china-clay
pit).
Frequent associates include several common tolerant
species and acidophiles of open ground and banks, e.g. Anthoceros
punctatus,
Archidium alternifolium, Bryum argenteum, Bryum bicolor, Ceratodon
purpureus,
Dicranella rufescens, Dicranella varia, Diplophyllum
albicans,
Fossombronia pusilla, Lunularia cruciata, Nardia scalaris, Pellia epiphylla, Phaeoceros laevis, Pogonatum aloides. On
mine-spoil with high copper concentrations it regularly occurs
in species-poor communities mixed with strict metallophyte
rarities, including Cephaloziella
massalongi,
C.
nicholsonii,
Ditrichum cornubicum, Pohlia andalusica, Scopelophila
cataractae and such commoner toleraters of copper as Cephaloziella
stellulifera, Gymnocolea inflata and
Solenostoma
gracillimum. In inundation zones beside reservoirs it may
be associated with Aphanorrhegma
patens, Archidium
alternifolium,
Bryum klinggraeffii, Bryum rubens, Ceratodon
purpureus,
Dicranella rufescens, Trichodon
cylindricus,
Leptobryum pyriformis, Pohlia annotina.
Other occasional associates recorded in various habitats
include Bryum
pallens, Cephalozia
bicuspidata,
Entosthodon obtusus, Pohlia
camptotrachela,
Pohlia filum,
Pohlia flexuosa and Pseudephemerum
nitidum.
Only recorded with axillary bulbils, which are
usually present and often abundant, in both open and ± heavily
shaded sites. Recorded c.fr. at two sites in vc1: capsules
immature 4, 5; dehiscing [7]; dehisced 7. Sporophytes are very
rare elsewhere in Britain, maturing
in early summer (M.J. Wigginton in Hill et al. 1994:
67).
