Identification notes
This creeping, much-branched pleurocarp is usually recognised as one of a small group of species belonging to the Amblystegiaceae family that have relatively wide leaf bases abruptly narrowing to a long, acuminate tip.
It has very broad habitat tastes, and, unlike the similar C. chrysophyllum, is as likely to be found in damp ground (such as seepages, flushes and fens) as dry habitat. It is also more tolerant of neutral soils than that species, which is also a strict calcicole. Cited differences in the nerve (short and double in C. protensum, thin and reaching at least to mid-leaf in C. chrysophyllum) are often difficult to confirm with a hand-lens, so microscopic confirmation may be necessary.
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