Oxyrrhynchium hians

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Identification notes

This straggly pleurocarp is tolerant of shade and soil enrichment and so often grows in the kind of unpromising places where bryologists do not spend much time.

To a certain extent, it shares the habitats of Kindbergia praelonga and when found straggling across the ground may easily be taken for that species. However, its stem and branch leaves are both ovate and taper to a sharp, narrow apex – which rules out lookalike Kindbergia (whose stem leaves are broadly triangular and often semi-squarrose) in the field.

Neutral to calcareous soil with a significant clay fraction is the preferred substrate of O. hians, and it typically grows with several other shade and nutrient-tolerant mosses, such as Fissidens taxifolius and Microeurhynchium pumilum. On freely-draining loams, O. hians may be replaced by O. schleicheri.

Read the Field Guide account

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland

View distribution from the BBS Atlas 2014

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