Distribution and ecology of Fissidens celticus JA Paton (Fissidentaceae, Bryopsida) in continental Europe

Fissidens celticus is currently known from Britain, Belgium, northern and western France, and western Germany, where it is reported for the first time. Fissidens celticus is dioicous and only female plants have been observed. Fissidens celticus is an oceanic, stenoic species avoiding long periods of frost on almost permanently moist, acidic and oligotrophic soils in shaded conditions at altitudes ranging between 140 and 360 m in continental Europe. As the populations are annually carried away with the erosion of the banks after the frost, it is very likely that shoots, or fragments of shoots, recolonize each year in the appropriate micro-habitats.