I had a couple of hours free on Tuesday, forecast was for drizzle so I decided to stick close to home and record the boring-looking monad just outside the village. And it was pretty boring, but I did find Bryum donianum for myself for the first time. There seems to be an awful lot of very variable B. capillare around at the moment, so I thought that was just what this was but collected a bit in case. And a section revealed the distinctive thickened margins.
I do wonder how often I just dismiss this as B. capillare, and perhaps others do too as there don't seem to be many records for it in Brecknock.
Next time I'll venture further to the banks of the Usk, look for Orthotrichum sprucei and rivulare perhaps! Both were recorded there by Ray Woods in 1981...
Bryum donianum is definitely not a beginners' moss, so well done for spotting it. It is widely scattered in lowland Monmouthshire, especially around the Usk valley, and I'm sure it'll be equally frequent in southernmost VC42 along the Usk. I don't think it was a species that Ray Woods was particularly familiar with, which may explain the paucity of previous Powys records.
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