Scorpidium cossonii Intermediate Hook-moss

A dark-green, sometimes with reddish patches, dioicous pleurocarpous moss which grows in calcareous flushes in the uplands. It is smaller and less sprawling than Scorpidium revolvens, less red in colour and its abundant branches are shorter. It can be confused with Warnstorfia exannulata, but its shiny leaves are wider, all curve in one direction and they are not pleated. It is a Boreo-arctic montane species with a western and northern distribution in Britain, almost exclusively in the uplands. It is scattered in the uplands of Wales but it is not common in West Glamorgan with sites on the Gower Commons and in flushed habitats along the northern edge of the South Wales Coalfield in Neath Port Talbot. Sporophyte capsules are rare.