Moving from yesterday’s flower, the meadow saxifrage, to a moss species no longer found in Ireland. The demise of “mud capped stone walls”, as outlined below, is another example of habitat loss, by far the biggest contributor to extinction.
From the National Biodiversity Data Centre:
The Spiral Chalk-moss (Pterygoneurum lamellatum) is one of 596 different species of moss recorded in Ireland, but 35 of these have now gone extinct from the island. The Spiral Chalk-moss was recorded from in and around Dublin city during the mid-19thCentury, where it grew on mud-capped stone walls, a habitat that has now disappeared. This species has not been recorded in Ireland since 1870
Séamus Sweeney 