Little apples

Back in about 2000 Sam and I carried out a vegetation and bryophyte survey at Craig y Fro by the A470 near Craig Cerrig-gleisiad NNR.   One of the bryos that sticks in my mind from the survey is  Plagiopus oederianus, which we found growing in some abundance behind a holly bush on the crags.  I stopped by briefly the other day to see how the Plagiopus is doing and was pleased to see it seems to be doing just fine.  It is quite a distinctive plant when fruiting, looking a bit like a large, loosely tufted, Amphidium mougeotii but with small Bartramia-like fruits growing out of it.  Actually, not many of the tufts had mature sporophytes, but on one patch they were abundant.  

I had a brief look around, paying my respects to the likes of Bartramia pomiformis, Amphidium and Aneoectangium aestivum and there were a few pinkish tufts of Orthothecium intricatum here and there. 

Wilson’s filmy-fern was looking good, with green spleenwort reasonably frequent and there were also a few patches of the very attractive lichen Solorina saccata.   

Some beds along this line of crags are very calcareous and back in 2000 we recorded Cololejeunea calcarea in one area.  

I noticed a patch of Brachydontium trichodes on top of a boulder – it is quite a while since I have seen this moss and I had forgotten how small it is.  A nearby flush had some nice patches of Blindia acuta and a very pink tuft of Philonotis calcarea.