Earliest vice-county records for F. pusilla s. l.:
*1: Chyenhal Moor,
Newlyn, 1840, WC (NMW) (Paton 1969a:
694).
*2: Boconnoc,
Lostwithiel, 1965, JAP (BBSUK) (Paton 1969a:
694). [Older report from same locality (in Rilstone 1919) not
supported by a specimen: Paton 1969a:
694].
Identifiable only when mature spores are present,
like most Cornish species of the genus (exceptions are F. angulosa, F. incurva and usually F. 'husnotii'). It must
therefore have been somewhat under-recorded, despite efforts
to find mature or dehisced capsules when Fossombronia spp. were
encountered and, when this failed, to collect plants with
immature capsules and grow these on
indoors.
Habitat notes from C&S are as follows. Damp or
wet soil along old tracks, part shaded (e.g. at woodland edge)
or rather open (with Archidium
alternifolium, Dicranella varia, Dicranella rufescens,
Dicranella
staphylina, Ephemerum serratum, Fossombronia
'husnotii', Tortula
truncata). Compressed soil on unshaded path above
sea-cliffs. Colonist on partly bare soil of disturbed ground
and recently made (or disturbed) banks, unshaded (with Phaeoceros laevis, Pleuridium subulatum,
Riccia subbifurca).
Steep soil of hedgebank at edge of arable field. Damp clay
soil on vertical bank at edge of pasture, part shaded by
Sycamore trees (good patches). Steep soil of earthy river bank
at edge of pasture (with Anthoceros punctatus,
Lunularia
cruciata). Damp clayey soil on trackside, roadside and
streamside banks, slightly to partly shaded (with Dicranella varia, Lunularia cruciata, Pellia epiphylla, Pohlia annotina, Pohlia melanodon;
associates recorded more rarely include Anthoceros punctatus,
Bryum sauteri, Dicranella rufescens,
Fissidens exilis,
Phaeoceros laevis).
Bit on china clay spoil. Damp mainly bare sand of heathy
ground near stream and mine-spoil. Damp soil in arable fields
(mainly cereal stubble fields, also new grass-ley and flax
stubble) (near Barbula
convoluta, Bryum
rubens, Dicranella
schreberiana, Dicranella staphylina,
Trichodon
cylindricus, Ephemerum
minutissimum, Oxyrrhynchium hians,
Phaeoceros laevis,
Tortula truncata).
Damp partly bare soil patches in pastures and on bank at edge
of pasture, unshaded or slightly shaded (with Phaeoceros laevis).
Damp soil in bulb-fields on Isles of Scilly (where apparently
replaced by Fossombronia maritima
on coastal heaths and cliff tops). Damp soil in stubble field.
On firm unshaded mud with sparse low vegetation in upper part
of inundation-zone beside Stithians Reservoir and
Siblyback
Lake.
Only identified c.fr.(with mature spores, or when
grown-on). Capsules: immature 1-12; dehiscing 1-7, 9-12,
recently dehisced 1-5, 9, 10, 12.
