Mellte Gunpowder Works

A site visit last week included a check on the moss roof I put together for the restoration project on the expense magazine.  It was originally planned to be turved, but I suggested using mosses from the woodland floor (from areas where logs were to be stacked) would be more appropriate as it would be cheaper, more sustainable, virtually maintenance free, as well as being much more in keeping with the site.  The work was undertaken in August 2018 and well over one year on, the mosses have done really well.  However, now all the conifers have gone, I'm fearing another dry summer may see some die-back, though I'm sure some species will persist until a canopy of sorts reforms.  Check it out next time you pass!

Two views on the day of construction 21st Aug 2018

After scaffolding removal 31st Oct 2018

Didymodon icmadophilus in the Neath Valley

I've not yet checked my specimen under the microscope, but what I've been calling D. icmadophilus (as recommended by Tom Blockeel) was present in good quantity on wavy concrete-block paving at Aberpergwm.  I'm not quite sure what is happening taxonomically with acutus and icmadophilus, as the map on the NBN appears to show records for these taxa amalgamated under the latter name.  If any anyone can shed any light on what's going on I'd be grateful, just so I can enter my records under the correct name.  D. acutus at Merthyr Mawr to me looks quite different to D. icmadophilus I've seen at anthropogenic sites in West Glamorgan.

For ref,  the list of associates on the blockwork was as follows:

Barbula convoluta var. convoluta Barbula convoluta var. sardoa Barbula unguiculata Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens Bryum capillare Bryum dichotomum Bryum pallens Bryum pallescens Calliergonella cuspidata Cephaloziella cf. hampeana Ceratodon purpureus Dicranella varia Didymodon cf. australasiae Didymodon fallax Didymodon ferrugineus Didymodon icmadophilus Didymodon insulanus Encalypta streptocarpa Hypnum cupressiforme var. cupressiforme Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum Trichostomum crispulum

Possible gall on Bryum rhizoids

I'm suspecting this odd structure on the rhizoids of Bryum pseudotriquetrum (or possibly B. pallescens, which I was puzzling over it when I spotted them, so must check the id) might be a gall?  If anyone knows anything about these or what else it might be, I'd be interested to find out.  Collected at Baglan Burrows yesterday, from one of the WTSWW Distichium inclinatum trial management plots.  For ref the diameter of the internal stalked sphere is 25μm and the external surface of the swollen club-shaped structures (several visible in lower image) appeared papillose.