Syntrichia latifolia Water Screw-moss

A yellowish-green, dioicous, acrocarpous moss which grows on the bases of trees and their roots in the flood zone of rivers and streanms and also, increasingly, on shaded tarmac and moist stonework. The broad leaves are quite distinctive and their upper surface often has a sprinkling of small, spherical gemmae which look like pollen grains. It is widespread in southern Britain but less so in Wales where it is most common in the southwest. It isn't common in West Glamorgan but there are recent records of it on tarmac and it may be expanding its range in that habitat. Propagation and dispersal is mainly by gemmae production and sporophytes are rare.