Racomitrium sudeticum Slender Fringe-moss

A dioicous acrocarpous moss which grows on exposed rocks and boulders in the uplands and more commonly on the highest ground. It forms distinctive, compact cushions with narrow leaves that usually have a short hair point which is not decurrent down the margins of the upper leaf (see photo). Also, the leaves are usually broadly recurved on one side so that when they are mounted on a slide they invariably lie sidewards. It is a Boreo-arctic montane species with a scattered western and northern distribution in Britain. It is scarcer than Racomitrium heterostichum in Wales and mostly a species of very high, exposed sites. However it is probably under recorded. There are just two records in West Glamorgan from the upper Afan Valley and the exposed upland plateaux of the South Wales Coalfield. Sporophyte capsules are occasional.