Saturday 4 April 2015

More Entosthodon

 I was in Mewslade Valley yesterday and noted a 50cm x 20cm patch of E. fascicularis with over 400 densely packed capsules (see photos above - patch on half-covered rock in foreground). I've looked at a few leaves and most have 2 or 3 cells between the costa and the leaf tip, so clearly not of the mouretii type.

I also had a look at the adjacent retaining wall (photos below) and discovered a new colony of E. pulchellus, with numerous small patches scattered along a 100m section of the wall. I counted over 200 capsules, but there were hundreds of non-fruiting plants too. This is possibly the most extensive colony I've personally come across.
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4 comments:

  1. sambbryo5 April 2015 at 09:32

    Thanks for looking, Barry. The first E mouretii recognised in Britain was on S-facing limestone at Lydstep, Pembs, so it might well be on Gower. Other records come from arable and other mundane habitats, adding to its lack of convincingness. As always, please can you email my NRW address with details of the E pulchellus population.

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  2. Charles Hipkin5 April 2015 at 18:00

    Lovely stuff Barry. Entosthodon spp. are conspicuously absent from NPT records, but no doubt are out there in small amounts somewhere. In the meantime your post tempts me to pay Mewslade a visit over the holiday period - there's worse places to spend a warm spring day!!! Having spent all of March teaching Masters students (and now completely immobilised with a neck injury) I'm pretty 'stir crazy'.
    And the Black Cats have just won the derby 1 - 0, in case you didn't know.

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  3. Barry Stewart5 April 2015 at 20:16

    Sorry to hear about you injury Charles, I can imagine how frustrating that must be and here's hoping you soon have it sorted so you can get mobile again. Yes the Black Cats topped off what has been a fabulous day - we went to Paviland Cave as I've never been there. It is an incredible place especially when you consider it was used by people ca.30,000 y.a. - it really gets the mind working, especially when you stand in the cave entrance - sadly no mosses in there despite a nice wet seepage! Very little recording done, just one of those days to savour.
    PS. There's plenty of great bryos to see at Mewslade, but better if you go in the morning or when the ground is damp. I can send you a few grid refs for other things like Foss.husnoti, Ricc.subbi, Encalp.vulg, Pleur,squarr, etc. if you wish?

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  4. GMT5 April 2015 at 22:52

    Nice photos again Barry, sounds a very enjoyable day out.

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