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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.

Fissidens serrulatus



Range & Status

Mostly in S. and W. Europe, extending north to Wales and Luxembourg, east to Rhodes; also in Macaronesia and N. Africa. Known from only six sites in the British Isles: two in S. Devon, two in W. Ireland, one each in N. Wales and W. Cornwall.

Regional Distribution

The only Cornish site is near Penzance where it was discovered in 1868 and persisted in small quantity in 1993 despite past ravages of collectors. However, it was not refound by bryologists visiting the site more recently.

Habitat & Ecology

At the Cornish site it grows on firm, near-vertical soil of a stream bank, somewhat above flood-level and well shaded by trees. Elsewhere in Britain it is reported from a wider variety of habitats, including alluvial sand and gravel, rocks below flood-level of deeply shaded streams and wet shaded rocks in a cave (Smith in Hill et al ., 1992). It is a dioicous species, for which only male plants are known in Britain. Rhizoidal tubers have been reported on a specimen from Devon (Arts, 1988a).

Threats

Numerous herbarium specimens have been collected from the Cornish site in the past and collecting could still pose a threat. A survey of the site near Penzance is needed to establish its current status.

00 Conservation

This species is listed on the UK BAP Priority Species list (2007).



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.