Isothecium holtii Holt's Mouse-tail Moss

A rather bushy, dioicous, pleurocarpous moss with an orange-brown or bronze appearance. It differs from Isothecium myosuroides in its larger size, colour and the acutely pointed leaf tip which is not drawn out into a fine acumen. It resembles Thamnobryum alopecurum and sometimes grows with it, but again the orange-brown colour is quite different. It is an Oceanic species which forms extensive patches at the bases of trees and on tree roots or rocks on the banks of fast flowing rivers and streams in humid woodlands and ravines. It has a very distinct western distribution in Britain and one typical of a species that favours Atlantic conditions. It is fairly local in Wales and scarce in south Wales where it is best represented in the waterfall valleys of Bannau Brecheiniog. There is just one record in West Glamorgan from the upper Vale of Neath, but its survival and occurrence there has not been confirmed for a while. Sporophyte capsules are rare.