Identification notes
This is a large moss, but a rarity that you’re unlikely to find unless you’re looking in a very specific kind of habitat in a handful of rivers. Its penchant for growing on tree bark and boulders low down in the flood zone of lowland rivers means that plants are often encrusted with silt and may not even be immediately obvious as a moss.
Its shoots are quite robust but whippy and – at 5-10 centimetres in length – are unlikely to be confused with anything except the most luxuriant Cryphaea heteromalla. That species, however, does not grow in places that are frequently inundated so these two are rarely found growing together.
Rivers where D. lamyana is found often also support other riparian rarities, such as Porella pinnata, Fissidens rivularis, Rhynchostegium alopecuroides and Orthotrichum sprucei.
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