Hornwort success!

On Friday I made a third visit to the Ty-du arable fields at Capel Llanilltern, but much to my frustration the Phaeoceros rosettes still hadn't produced any horns. There were plenty of horns on the scattered plants of Anthoceros agrestis, but the many Phaeoceros plants were either sterile or else had male organs only. However, there were some clear differences between the plants and I suspect both Phaeoceros species are present. There were some completely sterile rosettes (top left photo) and some with dense male organs (top right); I suspect these are female and male plants of the dioecious P. laevis. There were also plants with more scattered male organs (bottom left and right photos), like the ones I photographed on my previous visit and which Sam thought might be P. carolinianus. I've brought a few rosettes home to incubate in the hope of coaxing these slow developers into producing horns!

George - your bottom-left photo has at least one young archegonium, appearing as a small lump.  I have annotated it, as well as a couple of antheridial pits on the same thallus.  It is P. carolinianus, whilst the first two photos are indeed male and female P. laevis.

All this left me only 45 minutes to poke around in St David's Churchyard at Groes-faen (ST071808). The only species of note among the 37 taxa recorded was Gyroweisia tenuis, tiny plants of which were growing in crevices of the west-facing wall of the church. Photos below - I hope others agree with the diagnosis as it's not a species I'm familiar with. The leaf tips varied in their bluntness between plants, but were mostly quite rounded.

The visit boosted the tetrad total (ST08Q) from 56 to 69 taxa.

Bits and pieces

On Friday I spent a couple of hours tying up some loose ends. First port of call was the Ty-du arable field (ST103800), where Sam and Julian found immature Phaeoceros thalli in late September. These had matured in the intervening weeks; strangely, all those I found (and there were lots of them) were male, indicating they were the dioecious species P. laevis (photo below left). As in September, Anthoceros thalli were also in evidence (photo below right) and I managed to find some male organs to confirm them as A. agrestis (though I think Sam had already done this).

I was surprised by the abundance of Fossombronia, a genus I've not seen in other arable fields locally.  The sporophytes were immature but after a few days ripening at home I was able to extract spores enabling identification as F. pusilla.

Next stop was the roadside limestone outcrops in Pentyrch, with my hopes high after Barry's recent find of Weissia sterilis in Julian's nearby garden. Although 16 calcicoles were recorded there was no Weissia among them. The best record was probably Brachythecium glareosum.

Finally, 45 minutes were spent in Efail Isaf making a start on ST08X. Among the 36 species recorded were Pleuridium subulatum and Fossombronia pusilla on soil in the village allotments.

An enjoyable two hours despite the hail showers!

Horns a-plenty

On Fridays I mostly look after my younger daughter Amy, but I do get a couple of hours of play time while she is in nursery school - ideal for topping up the bryo counts for some local tetrads. On Friday last week conditions were ideal - some morning rain to moisten up the bryos nicely after the recent dry spell, replaced by sunshine by the time I ventured out.

My target was the west (VC41) bank of the River Rhymney north of Llanedern Bridge. I looked at a short section south of the bridge a year ago but only managed 30 taxa, so wanted to try and bump this up a bit. The usual range of flood zone bryophytes was present, including plenty of fruiting Leskea polycarpa. Of more interest to me were some large patches of fruiting Fissidens crassipes on riverbank rocks (convincing microscopically, with cell and peristome measurements within the ranges given in Smith), the first time I've seen this species on the local rivers.

A patch of knotweed on the riverbank had been chemically treated, allowing bryophytes to flourish on the newly-created bare ground. Both Riccia glauca and R. sorocarpa were present here.

Riccia glauca

Riccia sorocarpa

The best was still to come though. Across the track from the river was a large, grassy arable field and here, along with more crystalworts, were two species of hornwort: large male and female rosettes of Phaeoceros laevis and much smaller rosettes of Anthoceros with well developed horns. Frustratingly, try as I might, I couldn't find any male organs on the Anthoceros sample I brought home, so it will have to go down as Anthoceros sp. (though it's very likely to be A. agrestis as the rosettes were small). Other typical arable bryos were also abundant: Ephemerum minutissimum, Dicranella scherberiana, Trichodon cylindricus and Tortula truncata.

Anthoceros sp.

Anthoceros rosettes

Phaeoceros laevis (female)

Phaeoceros laevis (male)

Phaeoceros laevis (male organs)

I still haven't quite got this tetrad up to 60 species, but perhaps Sam has some records from the eastern (VC35) half?

Phaeoceros laevis revisited

The garden hornwort reported HERE over a month back from Cwmdulais was fully mature and liberating its spores nicely last week, the contrasting dark light part of the 'horns' being particularly conspicuous, so worth keeping an eye open in any suitable locations.

Garden Hornwort

There was a little family get-together at Sandra's Aunty Valmai and Uncle Alun's place in Cwmdulais this afternoon.  It seems an impossibility not to look at the ground and investigate anything that looks a little odd these days and the garden path, which was dressed with coal cinders from the Aga, proved too tempting not to get down on my knees, to much merriment from the relatives, especially when I told them they were walking over Hornwort! In the photo of the site, plants were scattered along the right-hand side of the garden path, this being shaded much of the day. I searched in vain for monoicious plants.

I think this is only the third site for Phaeoceros laevis in Glamorgan. I didn't have a note book at the time but the associates I can remember were Barbula convoluta var. sardoa, Brachythecium rivulare (the odd-looking pleurocarp in the image, checked under the microscope), Bryum dichotomum, Calliergonella cuspidata, Ceratodon purpureus, Cymbalaria muralis, Didymodon insulanus, Epilobium brunnescens, Funaria hygrometrica, Lophocolea bidentata, Lunularia cruciata, Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis, Pellia epiphylla, Pohlia wahlenbergii var. wahlenbergii and Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum.

Hunt for hornworts!

A month ago I led a walk up Carn Ingli for a group of horticulture students from Kew - and a mighty friendly group they were!  We saw algae, lichens, liverworts and mosses, and to my great relief stumbled across the 3rd Phylum of bryophytes: the Hornworts (Anthocerotophyta).  There are very few Glamorgan records of Hornworts, but they are pretty frequent in damp stubble fields in Monmouthshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire and are surely under-recorded in VC41.

Anthoceros punctatus remains unrecorded in Glamorgan, but it's usually the easiest species to find in Pembs: poached, rushy corners of cattle pastures are the classic locus, although it also grows occasionally on clayey ditch banks or even on lane banks.  Phaeoceros laevis has similar habits but is more regular in arable; the only recent Glamorgan record was Barry's from Staffal Haegr, but there are four 20th century ones as well, albeit not confirmed to species level.  Anthoceros agrestis is locally frequent in damp cereal stubbles in central Monmouthshire, along with Phaeoceros carolinianus, and both could be present in clayey arable somewhere in Glamorgan.

All of the hornworts look like mid/dark green thallose liverworts, and could be ignored as Aneura or Pellia if not fertile.  Look out for the 'horns' or for male 'pits' in the thallus.  Here are a couple of photos to give a search image.

Phaeoceros laevis alongside Riccia glauca in a very mossy stubble field.

Sporulating Anthoceros punctatus on a road verge in Co Cork. 

The spores of Anthoceros are black, whereas those of Phaeoceros are orange.

Please go out and hunt for hornworts soon!