Mnium marginatum Bordered Thyme-moss

A light-green, synoicous or dioicous acrocarpous moss which, throughout much of its range in Britain, grows in rock crevices ledges and boulders in mountains, but also on limestone pavement and in woodlands, particularly on base-rich rock. Less commonly it is found on base-rich, sandy alluvium that accumulates on the banks of rivers. It forms distinctive cushions and mounds which are often reddish at their base with single-toothed, egg-shaped leaves that clearly run down the stem and a nerve that usually reaches the tip. It is an uncommon species which has a fiarly distinctive western and northern distribution in Britain. It is scarce in Wales and found mostly in the south but not in the southwest. In West Glamorgan it is exclusively a species of sandy alluvial soils along rivers and it is relatively frequent in such places on the banks of the River Neath, but less common on the other rivers. Sporophyte capsules are common in summer.