Identification notes
This is one of the commoner species of Campylopus, and is frequently found in acid habitats such as rotting stumps, peaty soil on heaths and moorland, but usually avoids the wettest places. The genus can be confirmed by examining the leaf base, where the nerve occupies a third to a half of the width of the base. The base is composed mainly of hyaline cells which extend up the leaf, giving the plant a whitish green colour. Frequently it is the litter of shed leaves and shoot tips that cover the surface of the dense patch which draws attention to the plant. These are a method of asexual reproduction.
Unfortunately these deciduous fragments are not always present, and it can be tricky to tell the plant from Campylopus flexuosus. This plant usually has reddish auricles at the base of the leaf and sometimes specialised deciduous branchlets, and the leaves tend to taper more gradually from base to apex. But sometimes C.pyriformis can have a reddish leaf base. In cases of uncertainty you just have a bite the bullet and do a leaf section which in C.flexuosus has a layer of adaxial cells which are more numerous than the median cells. Campylopus fragilis produces a soft mass of tiny leaves at the end of the dense pencil-like stems.
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