Scapania gracilis Western Earwort

A dioicous leafy liverwort which grows in dry, humid sites on soil, wood, trees or rock in woodland and in scree or rock outcrops. The shoots are greenish-brown with spreading, non-appressed leaf lobes which can give colonies a somewhat untidy appearance. It is a hyperoceanic species which has a fairly distinct western distribution in Britain where it is a frequent and charcateristic species of Atlantic woodlands, often forming large cushions on trees, tree bases and rocks. In West Glamorgan it is most frequently found in humid valley woodlands in Neath Port Talbot. Sporophytes are frequent in spring and summer and gemmae are sometimes abundant.