The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
In Europe recorded from Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Known
elsewhere in Macaronesia, widely in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and S. America, also Bermuda, Philippines, Tahiti and Hawaiian Islands. In Britain, very local at widely scattered sites, mostly on or near coasts, from Cornwall to W. Scotland and in Sussex.
Regional Distribution
Known at four widely separated sites (SW72C, SX08U, SX19A, SX19F).
Habitat & Ecology
Restricted to moist or wet places that are constantly humid, growing mostly on rocks or steep banks of soil beside streams in woodland. It is dioicous or autoicous; sporophytes are occasional, maturing May to September.
Threats
No detailed information, but survival of this species is evidently dependent upon tree cover maintaining the humid conditions it requires. Populations upstream of Boscastle may have been harmed by erosion during the catastrophic flooding of recent years.
Conservation
Treated as Vulnerable in the Red-list (Church et al ., 2001). This species is listed on the UK BAP Priority Species list (2007).
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.