Identification notes
This species is classically described as being like a piece of string, which is a very good description. The pale green stems are little branched, the leaves are closely appressed to the stem which looks like a long thin cylinder. They are abruptly contracted to form thin wispy leaf apices which stick out from the side giving the branches a slightly frayed appearance. Often the it forms patches of vertically pointing shoots. It is a plant characteristic of open well drained acid or neutral sites such as sandy or gravelly thin turf or the sides of tracks and paths.
Brachythecium mildeanum is a similar colour and can be found in similar places, but this is a generally more branched plant with a scruffier appearance because the leaves are not held so tightly to the stem. The leaves taper more gradually to the long apex. Brachytecium glareosum is a more robust and more branched species of calcareous sites. Homalothecium lutescens is also a plant of calcareous places and is also little branched, forming loose tufts, but the leaves are elongate triangular.
Under the microscope, the alar cells extend up the margin of the leaf, forming a triangular patch. This is the most useful confirmatory character.
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