Scapania cuspiduligera Untidy Earwort

A dioicous leafy liverwort which grows on damp calcareous crags, limestone quarries and in calcareous turf, usually in the uplands and more rarely in coastal habitats. It is a rather small earwort which produces conspicuous brown or red gemmae. This rare Boreo-arctic montane species has a scattered distribution in Britain including some interesting populations in south Wales on damp tracks and spoil heaps in upland, limestone quarries. In West Glamorgan it is only found in Gower where it occurs on the limestone cliffs between Mumbles and East Cliff. 

The main associates recorded at the Mumbles site on 2014 were: Bryum capillare, Encalypta streptocarpa, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Homalothecium sericeum, Jungermannia atrovirens, Leiocolea turbinata, Lejeunea cavifolia, Schistidium crassipilum, Trichostomum crispulum & Zygodon viridissimus var. stirtonii. Other species noted that help characterise the vegetation included Bryum pseudotriquetrum, Didymodon tophaceus, Eucladium verticillatum, Fissidens adianthoides and Mnium stellare