Hymenophyllum tunbrigense Tunbridge Filmy-fern R DD N
Looking remarkably like a kind of moss, this fern tends to grow flat against wet rocks and is often mixed with genuine mosses which are of course not vascular plants. Both can dry out in hot weather and look nothing like the original but when rehydrated after rain they both assume their usual appearance. The veins in Hymenophyllum tunbrigense don't quite go to the ends of the fronds unlike Hymenophyllum wilsonii (Wilson's Filmy-fern). In the above photo the small spheres are the sporangia containing the spores.
It has a distinctly western distribution in Great Britain being found in Devon and Cornwall, throughout western Wales and in western Scotland. In Ireland it isn't so restricted but isn't found much in the centre of the island.
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| Hymenophyllum tunbrigense Tunbridge Filmy-fern |
Dewerstone Rocks, Devon 2nd September 2018
Added on 9th September 2018