Philonotis fontana Fountain Apple-moss

A pale, often glaucous yellow-green, dioicous, acrocarpous moss which grows in marshes, wet ditches along tracks and roads, on wet cliff ledges, on the margins of lakes and in marshy grasslands. It is the most common Apple-moss in Britain and it is widespread and abundant in the west and north. Typically, it forms compact mounds with reddish stems matted with red rhizoids. The triangular leaves are ribbed, with recurved margins and they are strongly double-toothed near the apex. It is found throughout Wales and it is very common in parts of West Galmorgan, particularly in the uplands of Neath Port Talbot where it is a ubiquitous component of the wet ditch flora along forest roads with species such as Bryum pseudotriquetrum, Dichodontium palustre and Dichodontium pellucidum. It is less common in Gower where it is mostly found on the Commons. The spherical sporophyte capsules are frequent and often abundant in summer.