*1: Perranporth, 1861,
ES (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
719).
*2: Lostwithiel, 1964,
JAP (BBSUK) (Paton 1969a: 719). [Earlier
report (Crumplehorn, Polperro, in Rilstone 1919) not supported by specimen: Paton 1969a:
719].
Recorded in C&S from two main types of dry,
normally unshaded, base-rich habitats:
[1] Most records are from calcareous sand of areas
with very short vegetation on fixed dunes or banks on coast,
forming lawns or low patches on stable substrates in dune
grassland areas or colonising sand in bare disturbed areas.
Also on calcareous sand on coastal hillslopes and ledges of
quarries near coast; once on soil on sea cliff. It occurs
widely on the Hayle-Gwithian Towans, Gear-Penhale Sands and
near Rock but is generally less abundant there than S. ruralis var. ruraliformis, which
is usually present close by (without occurrence of
intermediates). Associates recorded: Bryum dichotomum, Rhynchostegium
megapolitanum, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis, Tortella flavovirens,
Cerastium diffusum,
Festuca rubra, Plantago
coronopus.
[2] Growing as patches or cushions (often large
rounded cushions) on old concrete (e.g. in churchyards,
cemeteries, concrete fragments lying in floor of quarry),
marble chippings (on graves), asbestos-cement (roof of
building inland: doubtless under-recorded from such habitats)
or tiles (roof of church porch).
Four other records are of small amounts on gravelly
or sandy-gravel substrates: of a cemetery path, near gateways
and at the edge of an airfield. Unusual records of small
amount on old tarmac of track at landward edge of dunes,
partly shaded by rank growth of grasses and herbs, and old
tarmac of pathway inland where almost
unshaded.
Usually non-fertile; three records c.fr.: capsules
immature 1, 3.
