Daltonia splachnoides Irish Daltonia

Daltonia splachnoides is an epiphytic, hyper-oceanic moss with a restricted global distribution. It is absent from the European mainland and it has a western disribution in Britain and Ireland where it is confined to humid sites. Traditional habitats include ravines such as those found in western Scotland, but in recent decades it has colonised humid sites within conifer plantations in Ireland and western Britain where it is epiphytic on Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) or more often on willows growing in shaded places at the edges of Sitka Spruce coupes. It was first recorded in Glamorgan on Willows in the Sitka Spruce plantation of St Gwynno Forest in 2011 by Sam Bosanquet. Since then, several colonies have been found on roadside willows in the Sitka Spruce plantations of the Neath and Afan Valleys in West Glamorgan and the discovery of more can be expected in future. It is an autoicous (sometimes dioicous) acrocarp which produces neat sporophyte capsules with exquisetely fringed caps that are visible from late spring through to winter. The occurrence of these distinctive sporophytes make it easy to search for later in the year. It is often associated with Colura calyptrifolia and Zygodon conoideus var. conoideus, which have both undergone similar, spectacular range expansions in south Wales. Until recently it was considered to be very rare in Wales and was incorporated into the Section 7 list. However, in the light of its recent, spectacular range expansion in Wales, it is now considered to be of lesser concern.