Wednesday 13 April 2016

Parc le Breos

Conocephalum salebrosum - Pellia endiviifolia mat
I was passing Parkmill yesterday so I stopped to look at the Parc le Breos roadside cutting identified by Graham a week or two back. It was a bit drier than I expected and there was in fact very little in the way of tufa formation, but along with locally frequent Encalypta streptocarpa, Eucladium verticillatum, Pellia endiviifolia, Leiocolea turbinata and occasional Jungermannia atrovirens  and Tortella tortuosa were a few additional species of local interest, notably a few good patches of Conocephalum salebrosum and Didymodon spadiceus, both previously with just single records for Gower made during Sam’s Bishopston survey.
quite distinctive large shoots of Didymodon spadiceus,
when wetted produced straight, loosely patent leaves (>4mm long)
fortunately a few capsules were present
showing the diagnostic short peristome
Also growing there was this little puzzler, with scattered plants of what looked good for Pohlia lutescens. The presence of tubers and decurrent leaves seemed to limit the number of possibilities, however the cell measurements were a little larger than those given in Smith, the leaves not as toothy as shown and the habitat seemed atypical, growing on powdery (humid but not wet) soil in deep shade below an overhang growing with L. turbinata. So, I’m suspecting I may be on the wrong tracks with this one, but not sure what other options there are? Help!

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