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Cornish Red Data (2009)

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.

Amblystegium radicale



Range & Status

(syn. A. saxatile Schimp.). Occurs at scattered localities in W., C. and N. Europe; also the former Yugoslavia, Crimea, Japan, N. America and Ecuador. In the British Isles known for many years only from one site each in E. Cornwall (Crundwell & Nyholm, 1964; Paton, 1969) and N. Wales (Yeo & Blackstock, 1988; Blackstock & Holyoak, 2004), but found during past decade at a scatter of additional sites in E. Cornwall, Wales and Scotland (Bosanquet, 2006).

Regional Distribution

Discovered in 1962 by Mrs J.A. Paton in old china-clay works at Lavreanbridge near Bugle (Paton, 1969) and still present there but in very small amounts in 1997. Found in 2006 in a wheat stubble field E. of Herodsfoot (SX26F).

Habitat & Ecology

At Lavreanbridge it grows (or grew) in damp, stagnant, acid sites on decaying Soft Rush Juncus effusus in a marshy hollow with Grey Willows Salix cinerea in old china-clay workings. At a Welsh site it grew on recently burnt tussocks of Purple Moor-grass Molinia caerulea in a shallow peat-cutting. More recent records from S. Wales include several from reed-beds Phragmites australis (Bosanquet, 2006), whereas others from Scotland and E. Cornwall are from arable fields. Capsules are common on Lavreanbridge plants, maturing from April to June.

Threats

The population at Lavreanbridge had declined greatly by 1997, for unknown reasons although shade from Grey Willow had increased. Since then the site has been disturbed by creation of an off-road motorcycling circuit.

Conservation

None.



Click here to see Dr. David Holyoak's Bryophyte Flora for this species

Source:

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.



Cornish Biodiversity Network. 2017.