Photo
by Dr M Lueth ©.
*1: Trevelloe Carn near Lamorna, 1866, WC (PNZ) (Paton 1969a: 753-754).
*2: Trehane near Probus, 1859, ES (TRU) (Paton 1969a:
754).
Often in pure smooth mats or patches, sometimes
extensive, or as scattered stems on soil or among other
bryophytes. Notes on its habitats in Cornwall are as follows.
Common and sometimes locally dominant on acidic soil of banks
and slopes in woodland (deciduous and conifer); also occurring
on streamsides, laneside banks, on shaded parts of 'hedges',
etc., or growing on well rotted fallen wood or over edges of
slaty or granitic rocks. Usually in lightly to heavily shaded
places, and frequently on steep banks and under overhangs in
greatly reduced light and extending even into rather dry
places inside burrow entrances or under overhanging quarry
banks. Its commonest associates include Calypogeia arguta, C. fissa, Dicranella
heteromalla, Kindbergia praelonga,
Fissidens bryoides
var. bryoides,
Lejeunea
lamacerina, Mnium
hornum, Plagiothecium denticulatum
var.
denticulatum, rarer ones include Calypogeia
muelleriana,
Cephalozia lunulifolia, Lepidozia reptans, Lophocolea
fragrans, Nowellia
curvifolia,
Schistostega pennata, gametophytes of Trichomanes
speciosum.
Other records are from: shaded or part shaded
hollows in banks of china clay spoil; low on granitic boulder
near reservoir margin; in crevices and under overhanging rocks
on hilltop tors; abundant on granitic rocks of low tor shaded
by deciduous woodland; occasional on peat of sides of hummocks
in mires.
Usually with filiform axillary branches that serve
as propagules, these perhaps especially numerous on plants
growing in heavy shade. Rarely c.fr. (five records, vc1 and
vc): capsules immature 1, 2, 12; dehisced
7.
Plants closely similar to Pseudotaxiphyllum
laetevirens (Koppe & Düll) Hedenäs have been collected in Draynes
Wood, vc2 (DTH
00-13), from a shaded damp crevice of granitic rock in
deciduous (mainly Sessile Oak) woodland on a hillside. Hedenäs
(1992: 149-150) reported P. laetevirens only from
Madeira and the Azores; Guerra et al. (2001) gave two
records from S. Spain. However, some other material from
heavily shaded sites in the British Isles (including Cornish
specimens) shares most of its characters or is intermediate
with P. elegans, so that P. laetevirens is
probably best regarded as a form or synonym of P. elegans.
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