White Tip, Merthyr Tydfil

I was passing Merthyr's 'White Tip' yesterday and couldn't resist spending an hour and a bit to look for the Riccia beyrichiana found last winter. I managed to find good numbers of plants between SO03590721 & SO03560723, which although past their best were recognisable (photos 2 & 3). To illustrate the community, the following species were all direct associates recorded within a 50cm quadrat: Aphanes arvensis, Archidium alternifolium, Arenaria serpyllifolia agg., Bryum dichotomum, Cephaloziella divaricata, Cladonia rangiformis, Danthonia decumbens, Erophila majuscula, Festuca ovina, Fragaria vesca, Hieracium agg., Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Linum catharticum, Lotus corniculatus, Luzula campestris, Peltigera canina, Pilosella officinarum, Plantago lanceolata, Poa annua, Prunella vulgaris, Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum, Racomitrium ericoides, Racomitrium lanuginosum, Saxifraga tridactylites, Senecio jacobaea, Streblotrichum convolutum var. convolutum, Taraxacum sp., Thymus polytrichus, Tortella inclinata, Trichodon cylindricus & Trifolium dubium. 

 Additional bryos represented in this odd assemblage, with its muddled mix of calcicoles and calcifuges, included Bryum pallens, Campylium protensum, Didymodon tophaceus, Flexitrichum gracile, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Lophozia excisa, Pseudocrossidium revolutum (photo 4) & Solenostoma gracillimum. 

However, it was the abundance of Tortella inclinata that was particularly notable at the site (dominant species in photo 1). This is a species that seems to be particularly well adapted to furnace slag (photo 4) and several sites in Glamorgan support huge populations of this Nationally Scarce species. Without question, brownfield sites are a stronghold in our area. It was interesting to see it growing with Racomitrium lanuginosum, both species being locally abundant here.

A group outing to Barry Sidings

During one of the Covid lockdowns (I forget which) I set up a Glamorgan Bryophytes Facebook group, with the intention of encouraging more widespread recording in the county, particularly in the east, while we were unable to travel far from home. It has been pretty successful, with 65 people having become group members and many of them now submitting records via SEWBReCORD. 

I'd promised to run an informal recording session some time ago, and this finally came to fruition last Sunday (6th March) with an afternoon outing to Barry Sidings (in RCT, not Barry). The site is situated on the north-facing side of the lower Rhondda valley, being mainly conifer plantation with numerous small streams.

Six people came along and all professed to have enjoyed it by the end (I hope they weren't just being polite). It was great to have Peter Sturgess along to help field the many queries, and as an extra pair of eyes.

Predictably we took forever to get out of the car park, which had a nice north-facing retaining wall that held a good range of common species.

Photo: Caroline O'Rourke

We then progressed up the hillside, following a small stream that had some Palustriella commutata growing in it, and plentiful Hookeria alongside which was admired by all.

Hookeria lucens

The highlight for me was a shoot of Plagiomnium undulatum with four sporophytes sprouting from it; the last time I saw this species fruiting was 10 years ago.

Fruiting Plagiomnium undulatum

The bryophytes were rather upstaged, though, by a patch of Cornish Moneywort Sibthorpia europaea spotted by the sharp eyes of Peter Sturgess.

Cornish Moneywort

We recorded 69 bryo species in total, all in tetrad ST09K which had only two previous records. Hopefully we'll hold another session before too long - and if you don't wish to join the Facebook group I can send details via email in case you fancy coming along (I know Sam and Barry were away for this one).