Non-vascular Plants (mosses, liverworts and stoneworts)

Biodiversity Action Plan non-vascular plant species recorded in Sussex

This includes…

Foxtail Stonewort This distinctive and very rare stonewort is known in the UK from the Outer Hebrides and from five sites in southern England. In Sussex it is known only from a brackish ditch on Thorney Island.

Glaucous Beard-moss A tiny and very rare, bright green moss of chalk or limestone crevices. In our area recorded only from Old Erringham, West Sussex, prior to 1908. Otherwise known in Britain only from Wiltshire and Yorkshire.

Marsh Clubmoss is found on areas that are underwater for much of the winter; particularly wet heathlands. It is also requires bare patches such as those created by grazing disturbance. It is declining throughout much of its range and in the UK is now found in only a quarter of its previous sites, including Stedham Common in Sussex.

Slender Thread-moss A rare and decreasing lowland moss of sheltered acidic rocks recorded from widely scattered localities in the British Isles. It has been recorded from a number of sandrocks in both East and West Sussex recently.

Thatch Moss An ephemeral moss of old straw thatch and the base of grasses and rushes. A declining Oceanic Temperate species confined in Britain to southern England. Only recently recorded in our area from Amberley (1975), West Sussex. Known from East Sussex prior to 1900.

Text: Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre

Photo: Graeme Lyons/Sussex Wildlife Trust

More information about non-vascular plants

Botanical Society of the British Isles (Stoneworts)
British Bryological Society (Mosses and Liverworts)
Plantlife