False Beard-moss - Didymodon fallax

Didymodon fallax grows in loose tufts, patches or as scattered shoots. Shoots are short (0.75 to 1.5 cm tall), brownish, often tinged orange, or less frequently dull green. The leaves are 1 to 2 mm long, rather distantly spaced along the stem, spreading or recurved when moist, and twisted when dry. They vary in the extent to which they taper towards the tip. Cylindrical capsules occasionally form in winter and spring, borne on a red seta 1 cm long, and have a lid with a long beak. The long, twisted peristome teeth are rather like those of a Tortula species, looking like a delicately curled, pale orange-red brush.

A lowland moss of bare, usually base-rich soil on and beside tracks, paths and roadsides, on disturbed ground, in quarries and pits, and by water courses and pools. It may grow in shallow soil over rock and on walls, but never on stone itself.

All year round.

Widespread and fairly common in Britain.

Status in Leicestershire and Rutland not known.