Nogopterium gracile Bird's-foot Wing-moss

A brownish-green, dioicous, pleurocarpous moss which grows on the vertical faces of hard rocks and boulders, particularly igneous and sedimentary rocks that are base-rich. It sometimes grows as an epiphyte on trees. When moist the erect, curved shoots have spreading leaves but on drying the leaves become tightly appressed to the stems. In the dry condition it looks somewhat like Scorpiurum circinatum, but its branches all point in the same direction giving it a much neater appearance and its stems, which are bare below and with short branches above, have a more tree-like form. Microscopic examination of the leaves show that the nerve is double whereas the nerve in Scorpiurum circinatum is single, longer and much stronger. It is a Submediterranean-Subatlantic species with a scattered western and northern distribution in Britain. Although it is not rare in Wales it is rather local in the south and uncommon in Glamorgan. It was found on Rhossili Down by Quentin Kay in 1969 and still occurs there. Sporophyte capsules are rare.