Heterocladium heteropterum Wry-leaved Tamarisk-moss

A dark-green, Suboceanic, dioicous, pleurocarpous moss which grows on rock that is slightly acid to slightly basic in humid woodlands and ravines. The shoots show more or less pinnate branching with down-curved leaves. It is sometimes difficult to separate from Heterocladium flaccidum, but it tends to be larger. It is well distributed in the west and north of Britain and it is found throughout Wales. All recent records in West Glamorgan are from the valleys of Neath Port Talbot. Sporophyte capsules are very rare.

The distinction between Heterocladium heteropterum and Heteropterum flaccidum at species level is rather dubious. Many plants show characters that are intermediate between both and there appears to be a good argument for regarding both, at best, as varieties of Heterocladium heteropterum, which is how they are treated in the Atlas of British & Irish Bryophytes.