This is
Thuidium tamariscinum, more easily remembered as Common Tamarisk-moss. I found it peaking through some leaf debris at Friday Street (Surrey) and it quickly became my favourite moss of the day. They are not all this easy! It is perhaps worth mentioning that even something as obvious as this species does have pitfalls for the unwary, as two similar species exist (Delicate and Philbert's Tamarisk-moss). To complicate matters even further, these two species integrate with each other and each of their more robust forms can only be told from the commoner Tamarisk-moss with the help of a microscope! It makes watching a reed-bed full of vagrant acrocephalus warblers during a gale seem terribly simple...
This is Thuidium tamariscinum, more easily remembered as Common Tamarisk-moss. I found it peaking through some leaf debris at Friday Street (Surrey) and it quickly became my favourite moss of the day. They are not all this easy! It is perhaps worth mentioning that even something as obvious as this species does have pitfalls for the unwary, as two similar species exist (Delicate and Philbert's Tamarisk-moss). To complicate matters even further, these two species integrate with each other and each of their more robust forms can only be told from the commoner Tamarisk-moss with the help of a microscope! It makes watching a reed-bed full of vagrant acrocephalus warblers during a gale seem terribly simple...
Comments
After two years of searching I finally bumped into Philibert's Tamarisk-moss yesterday! It's very different and clearly only twice pinnate, about half the size and very messy.
Graeme