Solenostoma hyalinum Transparent Flapwort

A dioicous leafy liverwort which grows on rocks near streams and rivers, sometimes buried in detritus and also in moist gullies, seepages on cliffs, ditches and banks in woodland. It is a large, strongly aromatic flapwort with purple, red or violet rhizoids, broad, blunt leaves and a pair of well developed bracts below the perianth (see photo). Non-fertile material is difficult to identify with certainty due to similarities with other species and the combination of pigmented rhizoids, the occurrence of bracts on the outside of the perianth and the dioicous habit need to be confirmed. It has a scattered western and northern distribution in Britain and it is probably under recorded. There are few records of it in West Glamorgan but an interesting colony was found by BS on a wet north-facing retaining wall along the main railway line near Llansamlet Station (see photo) in 2016. Perianths are frequent and sporophyte capsules are occasional in spring.