Identification notes
Campylopus species are – perhaps fairly – perceived as difficult by some. However, a plant can usually be readily recognised as a Campylopus from the long, awl-like leaves which have a nerve that occupies a third or more of the width of the leaf base.
C. flexuosus is a much-overlooked plant that is really quite common, at least in western areas. Helpfully, it has two stand-out features that will help to identify it in the field. First, plants often have strange-looking bunches of deciduous shoots at their tips (there’s a photo of this below) which serve as vegetative propagules. Many species of Campylopus have vegetative propagules, but most lose leaves, or shoots.
Red/orange colouration is often present in stems and also in the well-developed leaf auricles, a feature that can easily be seen with a hand-lens if you are dexterous enough to strip off stem leaves in the field.
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