Cratoneuron filicinum Fern-leaved Hook-moss

A very common and widespread, dioicous, pleurocarpous moss which grows in damp or wet areas where there is at least some base-richness such as flushes, rock ledges, gravelled tracks, road sides and ruderal habitats. It is quite variable in form and can be quite small in some roadside habitats and leaves are not always strongly curved. Nevertheless it has a 'look' and the pale tipped shoots are often very distinctive in well grown colonies. Good microscopic characters include the coloured patches of enlarged cells in the basal corners of the leaf and the usually dense mats of red-browm rhizoides on the stems. It is very common in West Glamorgan and is a ubiquitous member of the bryophyte flora along the edges of forest road that have been dressed with limestone.