Campylophyllum calcareum at Tongwynlais

 After a visit to the Chalk Carpet moth site at South View, Tongwynlais, to look at some potential management work, I had time to grab a few bryophyte samples before heading home. There are some nice limestone outcrops here, both sunny and shaded, and a good diversity of calcicoles are present, including Campyliadelphus chrysophyllus and Gymnostomum viridulum (the latter recorded here for the firsr time on the recent visit, though it is known from elsewhere in the tetrad). 

The last of my samples, taken from a large limestone block shaded by beech trees, looked a good match for Campylophyllum calcareum, with low-growing, densely branched patches and widely-spreading, often recurved leaves only around 0.5mm long. The denticulate margins of the lower part of the leaf, lack of a nerve, and general habit gave me confidence that I'd got the ID right, but I was grateful when Sam confirmed it from some images I sent him.

This nationally scarce species is known in Glamorgan from the Garth Wood / Coed-y-bedw area, just a mile or so west of the current location, where it was recorded most recently in 1985. It's good to know it is still a Glamorgan species - and perhaps there are more locations waiting to be found in the North Cardiff beechwoods.