Thursday 10 March 2016

Fruiting ruraliformis at Whiteford

A random stop at what looked potential habitat to try and find Mibora away from the now tiny remnant population at the regular site proved to be unsuccessful, but I was surprised at the sheer abundance of fruiting Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (above left). The new Atlas states that capsules are rare, as evidenced by there being no Carms records and just 1 Pembs record. Associates at Whiteford included S. r. var. ruralis (not fruiting) along with scattered plants of Hornungia petraea (above right). A fruiting shoot is shown below left and leaves of both vars. from the site are shown below right.

2 comments:

  1. The disappearance of Mibora from that site is very disappointing.

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  2. It's not totally lost, but it is perilously close to being so. However I'm convinced there must be plants in other parts of this huge site - especially as it's a devil of a thing to spot. I'll keep looking...

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