Campylium chrysophyllum Golden Feather-moss

A slender, dioicous, pleurocarpous moss which grows in dry, open calcareous sites such as limestone grassland, quarries, sand dunes, scree and the edges of tracks and roads. It has a fairly typical calcicole distribution in Britain, being most abundant in areas with a chalk or limestone geology. Its spiky appearance is rather similar to that of Campylium protensum which is larger. Also, unlike that species, the leaves of Campylium chrysophyllum have a short nerve which is quite faint and sometimes difficult to see with a hand lens in the field. In West Glamorgan it is frequent on the limestone along the south Gower coast but it also occurs inland in Neath Port Talbot on coal tips and particularly along the edges of forest roads that have been dressed with calcareous gravel, where it often grows with Campylium protensum. Sporophyte capsules are rare.