Monday 16 March 2015

East Cardiff in the rain

I don't enjoy mossing in the rain much, but it has its advantages in urban areas as far fewer people (and, more to the point, dogs) are out and about. Friday afternoon was pretty grotty but I had a couple of spare hours, so headed over to eastern Cardiff, where I've hardly done anything til now.

Wern-goch (ST2080) proved a surprisingly nice bit of urban woodland, with some clayey streams and plenty of mature trees. There was nothing remarkable among the 56 species recorded, but two appear to be new for ST28 (if the Atlas is still up to date for this hectad): Neckera pumila and Lejeunea lamacerina. Both were growing as small patches on tree trunks, the Neckera on a woodland edge Hazel and the Lejeunea on an Ash. The latter was about 1.5m up in a not particularly damp situation, so I expected it to be cavifolia until I checked under the microscope. Other species just about worthy of mention, in a Cardiff context, were Calypogeia arguta and Pleuridium acuminatum, the latter on several root plates of blown-over trees.

The wood lies in ST28A which is partly in VC35, so perhaps Sam has done some recording in this tetrad too.

George

2 comments:

  1. Neckera pumila is a nice record, although the Atlas might suggest we should be seeing it a bit more frequently in Glamorgan?

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  2. Having never seen N. pumila in Glam until a week ago, I've now seen it twice. The other site was a similarly small patch on a Poplar near M4 J34.

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