Wye Valley

Earlier this week I visited a replanted woodland in the lower Wye valley. Apart from a small area with natural rock outcrops, it had a rather dull bryo flora and I only managed to record 45 species.  The most interesting part, with the rocks, had lots of Anomodon viticulosa, some fruiting,

sheets of Porella platyphylla and a small patch of Porella arboris-vitae,

but strangely no Neckera crispa, which is usually common in this sort of habitat in this part of the world.   As I hadn’t seen the rather rare moss Seligeria campylopoda for a while, I had a good look at scattered pieces of limestone on the woodland floor, but no joy.  

On my way back to the office I made a lunchtime stop at Wyndcliff to see if the Seligeria was showing there.  I looked in the area I saw some with a BBS excursion back in 2001, but still no luck and as the path quickly became horribly muddy, I turned around to find a drier route.  Walking back towards the car park I spotted a rock with a bonus patch of Amblystegium confervoides.  

Across the road the path was much drier and I quickly found a small rock with three or four young sporophytes of S. campylopoda, but I couldn’t get a good pic due to the dark conditions under the yew trees.   I didn’t have much time left, so I quickly walked on towards the base of the cliffs where there were abundant patches of Marchesinia mackaii – a reasonably common species on shaded limestone in Wye valley woods.  

On the return walk to the car I managed to spot a nice fruiting patch of S. campylopoda on a small rock wedged between two large mossy boulders and managed to get some reasonable pics.

Back at the office I came across a file note from the 1950s, which mentioned that the first area of wood I had visited had been recently clear-felled and replanted and had little botanical interest.  Judging by the age of the trees today, I suspect it must have been clear-felled again about 30 years ago, so not surprising it was poor in woodland bryophyte species.