Friendly Cwm-Morgan

I had a rare day out bryophyte recording in VC44 on Sunday having dropped Bea at a sewing class near Newcastle Emlyn. I chose to focus on two under-recorded tetrads around Cwm-Morgan, on the border with Pembrokeshire. SN33C started quietly with a churchyard and lane banks, but I was then approached by a lady who said that she and her husband had just moved into a smallholding there and were interested in the wildlife on their land, and would I be interested in looking at their moss-rich woodland. This proved to be a lucky encounter, as their section of Cwm Banddu held 54 bryophyte species including several of the commoner 'westerners' such as Fissidens celticus, Heterocladium heteropterum, Hookeria lucens, Lejeunea lamacerina, Oxystegus tenuirostris and Saccogyna viticulosa. Dripping rockfaces supported Fissidens adianthoides, Riccardia multifida and Bryum pseudotriquetrum, whilst Aneura 'euromaxima' was in a Chrysosplenium flush. Star find was a 5x4m patch of Rhytidiadelphus subpinnatus, >20km from its nearest known sites in Cwm Gwaun (VC45) and Brechfa Forest.

In SN23X I thought that a loop walk through Cwm-Morgan village and round the lane above the village would produce a good haul of bryophytes, and sure enough minor highlights included Grimmia trichophylla, Marsupella emarginata, Pseudocrossidium revolutum and Saccogyna viticulosa. However, a friendly local walking his dog spotted my handlens, asked me whether I had seen anything interesting, and then said I was welcome to have a look in his woods. These turned out to be gorgeous W17 oak woodland with abundant Dicranum majus and Rhytidiadelphus loreus, a couple of large cushions of Leucobryum glaucum, and at least 20 clumps of Bazzania trilobata (plus another across the tetrad boundary in SN33C).

Spending extra time in these woods produced a couple of really notable bryophytes, although it meant I had no time for a full third tetrad. Instead I scraped 9 additions to SN33D and 7 additions to SN33H on my way back to collect Bea.