Wernddu revisited

Well this time the Red-flanked Bluetail gave itself up readily and on our circuit back to the car I stopped briefly at what looked like the remains of an old lime kiln. Amongst some fruiting Leiocolea turbinata was the tiny Fissidens crispus (=limbatus). NB smallest tick marks below = 1μm and note protruberant cells.

Magical Mellte

A small selection of hepatics from yesterday:

Metzgeria conjugata (Rock Veilwort)
growing in tiers on vertical face of large boulder

Barbilophozia attenuata (Trunk Pawwort)
at the base of a Larch trunk

Cephalozia catenulata (Chain Pincerwort)
noted on several decorticated logs

Jamesoniella autumnalis (Autumn Flapwort) &
Blepharostoma trichophyllum (Hairy Threadwort)
on a fallen oak

Leiocolea bantriensis (Bantry Notchwort)
on the vertical face of a flushed river side outctop

A quarry at Stormy Down

A survey of one of the Limestone quarries at Stormy Down proved to be reasonably productive today. The Weissia-like acrocarp shown below has me puzzled though: The leaf margins are largely plane, though a few are slightly in-rolled towards the tips; the leaves become in-rolled and very crisped on drying; some patches produce abundant, long, reddish, slightly wavy setae with un-inflated capsules in early development; the leaf cells are papillose and the basal cells are larger and hyaline; the strong orangey-tinged costa ends just below the leaf tip; grows as somewhat loose, sometimes extensive patches, growing along with Leiocolea badensis, Dicranella varia and Didymodon fallax, all of which were locally abundant and characterised the damp, clayey, lime-rich soil on the quarry floor. Other frequent calcicoles noted included Aliona aloides, Aneura pinguis, Trichostomum crispulum and Gymnostomum viridulum, the latter being remarkably abundant on the soil slopes all around the lower edges of the quarry walls. A few patches of Preissia quadrata were also noted on the quarry floor.

Below left; Patches of  Leiocolea badensis frequent on the quarry floor. Below right; Gymnostomum viridulum frequent on slopes all around the edges of the quarry floor.

Below; Gymnostomum viridulum, Sedum sexangulare (doing well!) and Preissia quadrata.