Twin Tips

Earlier this week I carried out a bryophyte survey of the Twin Tips, two prominent colliery spoil heaps at Dare Valley Country Park, for Buglife's ongoing Coal Spoil Connections project. As part of this project I am writing a report on the value of colliery spoil for bryophytes, so it was useful to look at the bryophyte communities on the tips with a keener eye than I have when recording on
colliery spoil in the past.

Both tips are old and dominated by Heather on their steep sides and tops. Trees and scrub, especially gorse, are on the increase and now clothe some of the slopes and parts of the plateaux. It was good to see the site staff and a team of volunteers tackling some of the gorse while I was there.

The bryophytes of the heather-dominated areas were typical of what you would find on any other heather moorland: mostly Pleurozium schreberi with plenty of Hylocomium splendens, Hypnum jutlandicum and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus. It is always nice to see Ptilidium ciliare and there were a few patches of it scattered here and there.

Ptilidium ciliare

The most interesting communities on these tips were on the humid north-facing slopes, where several damp-loving species were present despite the free draining nature of the substrate. Aulacomnium palustre and Polytrichum commune were frequent, along with four species of Sphagnum: plenty of S. subnitens,  some S. fimbriatum, a glorious carpet of S. capillifolium in one area and a little S. auriculatum.

Extensive carpet of S. capillifolium, with P. commune poking through

There wasn't much space for smaller bryophytes among the dense cover of pleurocarps and Sphagna, though patches of Lophozia ventricosa were present with Calypogeia fissa and C. arguta. Gorse and willow stems were covered in epiphytes, including some Colura calyptrifolia on the gorse.

As I was about to leave, I noticed some coal spoil exposures on a flatter area adjacent to the tips, which is in use as a bike track. The spoil here was wetter and had been disturbed more recently, and many of the bryophytes that were present were lacking from the older, drier main tips. These included the characteristic coal spoil species Archidium alternifolium and Racomitrium ericoides, and on the sides of a ditch cut through the spoil were the most interesting finds of the day - plenty of Bryum alpinum and a little Campylopus subulatus. The latter has just a few county records, from Neath Port Talbot, so this seems to be the first for Rhondda Cynon Taf. 

Ditch through coal spoil with Campylopus subulatus & Bryum alpinum

 

Campylopus subulatus

Bryum alpinum

All in all around 70 species were recorded from the colliery spoils and I was left pondering the diverse communities of bryophytes that develop on this substrate and how best to conserve them.

White Tip, Merthyr Tydfil

I was passing Merthyr's 'White Tip' yesterday and couldn't resist spending an hour and a bit to look for the Riccia beyrichiana found last winter. I managed to find good numbers of plants between SO03590721 & SO03560723, which although past their best were recognisable (photos 2 & 3). To illustrate the community, the following species were all direct associates recorded within a 50cm quadrat: Aphanes arvensis, Archidium alternifolium, Arenaria serpyllifolia agg., Bryum dichotomum, Cephaloziella divaricata, Cladonia rangiformis, Danthonia decumbens, Erophila majuscula, Festuca ovina, Fragaria vesca, Hieracium agg., Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Linum catharticum, Lotus corniculatus, Luzula campestris, Peltigera canina, Pilosella officinarum, Plantago lanceolata, Poa annua, Prunella vulgaris, Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum, Racomitrium ericoides, Racomitrium lanuginosum, Saxifraga tridactylites, Senecio jacobaea, Streblotrichum convolutum var. convolutum, Taraxacum sp., Thymus polytrichus, Tortella inclinata, Trichodon cylindricus & Trifolium dubium. 

 Additional bryos represented in this odd assemblage, with its muddled mix of calcicoles and calcifuges, included Bryum pallens, Campylium protensum, Didymodon tophaceus, Flexitrichum gracile, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Lophozia excisa, Pseudocrossidium revolutum (photo 4) & Solenostoma gracillimum. 

However, it was the abundance of Tortella inclinata that was particularly notable at the site (dominant species in photo 1). This is a species that seems to be particularly well adapted to furnace slag (photo 4) and several sites in Glamorgan support huge populations of this Nationally Scarce species. Without question, brownfield sites are a stronghold in our area. It was interesting to see it growing with Racomitrium lanuginosum, both species being locally abundant here.

A group outing to Barry Sidings

During one of the Covid lockdowns (I forget which) I set up a Glamorgan Bryophytes Facebook group, with the intention of encouraging more widespread recording in the county, particularly in the east, while we were unable to travel far from home. It has been pretty successful, with 65 people having become group members and many of them now submitting records via SEWBReCORD. 

I'd promised to run an informal recording session some time ago, and this finally came to fruition last Sunday (6th March) with an afternoon outing to Barry Sidings (in RCT, not Barry). The site is situated on the north-facing side of the lower Rhondda valley, being mainly conifer plantation with numerous small streams.

Six people came along and all professed to have enjoyed it by the end (I hope they weren't just being polite). It was great to have Peter Sturgess along to help field the many queries, and as an extra pair of eyes.

Predictably we took forever to get out of the car park, which had a nice north-facing retaining wall that held a good range of common species.

Photo: Caroline O'Rourke

We then progressed up the hillside, following a small stream that had some Palustriella commutata growing in it, and plentiful Hookeria alongside which was admired by all.

Hookeria lucens

The highlight for me was a shoot of Plagiomnium undulatum with four sporophytes sprouting from it; the last time I saw this species fruiting was 10 years ago.

Fruiting Plagiomnium undulatum

The bryophytes were rather upstaged, though, by a patch of Cornish Moneywort Sibthorpia europaea spotted by the sharp eyes of Peter Sturgess.

Cornish Moneywort

We recorded 69 bryo species in total, all in tetrad ST09K which had only two previous records. Hopefully we'll hold another session before too long - and if you don't wish to join the Facebook group I can send details via email in case you fancy coming along (I know Sam and Barry were away for this one).

Daltonia at Glyn-Castle

 

I spent an enjoyable and interesting day in the forestry along the Nant Clydach, near Resolven in Cwm Nedd, looking at mature willows along forest roads and streams with Hannah Shaw from NRW. We were joined by Charles for the afternoon. To my surprise I spotted a tuft of Daltonia on the first trackside willow that we checked, but after that it was slow going until mid afternoon when we descended to the Nant Clydach and located two more colonies of Daltonia, one of them holding 8 tufts. Other bryophytes seen during the day included Colura, Lejeunea cf patens, Zygodon conoideus and surprisingly frequent Sanionia uncinata. Notable lichens were also quite hard to find, but the riverside willows and ash held some Megalaria pulverea and a small patch of Lecanora jamesii. Thankyou to both Hannah and Charles for their company and wide-ranging discussions during the day. 

Encalypta ciliata?

 I don't often seem to find an Encalypta with capsules, so was pleased to find one the other day on Mynydd Llangorse (well actually on the rocky outcrops on Cockit Hill; I'm not fit enough for mountains these days!). It was tucked away in a crevice on a rocky slope below the main 'cliffs'.

I think it's E. ciliata, although the calyptrae don't seem to be ciliate - but it seems to fit in other respects. Fortunately it had both old and new capsules,

Moist capsule is smooth

Peristome teeth are short and seem quite fragile

One spore looked papillose but the vast majority were ridged

The base of the calyptra from below - looks intact, not ciliate?

I'm wondering whether the new capsules are just too immature to have developed the cilia around the calyptrae. They are very young. Unless there's anything else it could be?

Heterocladium wulfsbergii at last!

 I have been religiously checking Heterocladium heteropterum specimens for months, convinced that I should be finding H. wulfsbergii. On Friday, I think I finally found it.

Last year, I explored a bit of the Pontsticill Reservoir area with Sharon Pilkington and Pete Martin and we had a couple of productive days up Cwm Callan. On Friday I decided to investigate the other side, around Cwm-Car. And in a gully just below the waterfall, there it was - covering a vertical rock face. I'm pretty sure that's what it is, but happy to be corrected if anyone disagrees.

And here is the location - just behind the camera on the right:

I'm still checking my other specimens, but so far haven't found anything else of note.

Apologies that I haven't been posting on the blog, but the website rather occupies a lot of time and I do need to get out sometimes. Will try to do more now that website work has settled down a bit.

Campylophyllum calcareum at Tongwynlais

 After a visit to the Chalk Carpet moth site at South View, Tongwynlais, to look at some potential management work, I had time to grab a few bryophyte samples before heading home. There are some nice limestone outcrops here, both sunny and shaded, and a good diversity of calcicoles are present, including Campyliadelphus chrysophyllus and Gymnostomum viridulum (the latter recorded here for the firsr time on the recent visit, though it is known from elsewhere in the tetrad). 

The last of my samples, taken from a large limestone block shaded by beech trees, looked a good match for Campylophyllum calcareum, with low-growing, densely branched patches and widely-spreading, often recurved leaves only around 0.5mm long. The denticulate margins of the lower part of the leaf, lack of a nerve, and general habit gave me confidence that I'd got the ID right, but I was grateful when Sam confirmed it from some images I sent him.

This nationally scarce species is known in Glamorgan from the Garth Wood / Coed-y-bedw area, just a mile or so west of the current location, where it was recorded most recently in 1985. It's good to know it is still a Glamorgan species - and perhaps there are more locations waiting to be found in the North Cardiff beechwoods.