Identification notes
A. mediterraneum looks just like A. muticum, and is tiny, bud-like and cleistocarpous. It will not be found in passing – either a dedicated search of barish, disturbed ground is needed, or it will be collected accidentally as a ‘bonus bryophyte’ with something else.
The only way to distinguish A. mediterraneum from A. muticum, which is a more common species (though never that common!) is to examine ripe spores under a compound microscope. The spiny spore coat of A. mediterraneum is strikingly different to the slightly granulose spores of A. muticum.
