*1: Near Flushing,
Falmouth, 1839, EAW (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
727).
*2: Port Quin, 1890,
RVT (B) (Paton 1969a:
727).
This and several allied taxa were only recorded
when mature (or almost mature) capsules were examined. Hence
it tends to be under-recorded, with only a few records from
about July to Dec. (and those based mainly on chance finds of
old capsules).
Grows as low lawns or tufts. Habitat notes from
C&S are as follows. Commonest on free-draining mineral
soil (clayey, silty, sandy, gravelly, or loamy) that is
neutral to mildly acidic, including 'head' deposits and thin
soil overlying rock, on horizontal, sloping or vertical
surfaces. It normally occurs only in sites that have been
stable for several years (arable land is not usually
colonised). Fertile plants occur in fully insolated to partly
shaded places, but non-fertile plants occur in deeper shade
(e.g. crevices in banks, under overhanging banks, beneath
trees). Commonly recorded from laneside and roadside banks,
Cornish hedges, upper parts of sea-cliffs and banks above
them, thin soil on old walls, and old quarries (for slates,
granite). Fewer records from old copper-mine spoil, china-clay
spoil, fixed dunes, blown sand on coastal hillslopes,
churchyard banks and on and beside graves. Several records
from decayed mortar on tops and sides of walls of ruined mine
buildings demonstrate some tolerance of basic substrates, as
does a record from very thin soil over 'rotted' concrete of
grave. Unusual records of good patch c.fr. on decaying wood of
old, partly shaded fence, and large patch forming annulus on
decaying rubber of old tyre lying beneath Ash tree on
mine-spoil. Single record from arable (stubble) field in small
amount cfr, but several records of sterile Weissia from stubbles
perhaps this sp. Associates frequently recorded include Barbula convoluta, Bryum capillare, Bryum sauteri, Fissidens bryoides
var. bryoides,
Hypnum cupressiforme
var.
resupinatum, Tortella flavovirens,
Tortula
viridifolia, Sedum
anglicum; rarely Bryum donianum, Cephaloziella
divaricata, Cephaloziella
hampeana, Cephaloziella
integerrima, Hypnum
cupressiforme var.
lacunosum, Polytrichum
juniperinum, Scleropodium touretii,
Tortula canescens,
Trichostomum
crispulum, Weissia
brachycarpa var.
obliqua.
Commonly c.fr. (only recorded when mature capsules
or mature spores examined): capsules immature 1-4 (5), 10-12;
dehiscing 1-7 [8], [9]; dehisced (3: few)
4-11.
'Dwarf' populations from sea-cliffs in West Penwith
(Porthmoina Cove; Kenidjack) and Isles of Scilly (St Martin's:
DTH 95-320) appear distinctive, with short
stems, small leaves, short seta, capsule small and ovoid to
broadly ovoid, and peristome entirely lacking (even from newly
dehisced capsules). Since they resemble typical plants of var.
controversa in leaf
structure and spore size (15-16 µm) they are placed
with that taxon. Further study is needed to establish whether
the dwarf form has any genetic basis.
