After numerous riverbank surveys I'd more or less given up hope of finding
Orthotrichum rivulare or
sprucei on the Taff in Cardiff, so decided to make my first foray to the River Ely, at St Fagans, on my lunch break today. There, on the first alder I looked at, was
O. sprucei! At least, I think it is
sprucei rather than
rivulare - small plants (mostly < 1cm tall) forming carpets and with large leaf cells - but if anyone disagrees based on the photos below please let me know.
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| Host Alder |
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| Rubbish field photo but shows the low carpets of O. sprucei |
I don't have the apparatus to measure the leaf cells, so can I be 100% sure it's not
rivulare?
I only searched two alders - the second didn't have any
sprucei, but between them they supported at least 16 epiphytes including abundant
Leskea polycarpa and small amounts of
Brachythecium plumosum,
Cinclidotus fontinaloides and
Homalia trichomanoides.
Sam - that was great timing with your comment on the previous post. Any particular reason why you mentioned sprucei not rivulare? Is it the commoner of the two in VC35?
ReplyDeleteGreat find George - a county first!
ReplyDeleteI so nearly looked at those St Fagans river trees last Monday - glad I didn't! O sprucei is much commoner than O rivulare in Mons. The leaf apiculus is a good ID feature so I'm sure you are right.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate target there would be Myrinia. It is on the Usk in two places.
ReplyDeletePhew, thanks for leaving me that one! Myrinia would be very exciting. The Ely has a pretty active flood plain.
ReplyDeleteGreat record George.
ReplyDelete