Mosses over the sea

There is very little land in ST1971 but this monad does include the outer portion of Penarth Pier. A trip with the family last weekend revealed six species growing on the wooden deck of the pier, directly above the sea at high tide but presumably elevated enough to limit the influence of salt. The species were Bryum capillare, B. argentuem, B. dichotomum, Ceratodon purpureus, Hypnum cupressiforme and Dicranoweissia cirrata.

Filling in the gaps

During the last few weeks H and I have been revisiting a lot of NPT monads in an attempt to fill in the gaps in the records of several common species like Bryum dichotomum, B. argenteum and Funaria hygrometrica, mostly along forestry roads.

Bryum dichotomum

Bryum argenteum and Funaria hygrometrica

Funaria hygrometrica

Now is a good time to record these seemingly prosaic species, which are important ruderal pioneers. Although we haven't seen anything very special, it was nice to see a colony of Blasia pusilla along a cinder track near the Tennant Canal in Jersey Marine yesterday. Unfortunately, the plants were rather decrepit and they had lost their flasks, but there were a few stellate gemmae.

Blasia pusilla, Jersey Marine

Stellate gemma of Blasia pusilla 

 This is the third population we've seen in NPT, but colonies are always rather transient.

Fairwood airport

I made a brief stop-off on Tuesday to look at the section of concrete runway outside the perimeter fence SS573910 at Fairwood. This revealed small quantities of Plagiomnium cuspidatum (photos above) growing with more abundant associates that included Brachythecium albicans, Ceratodon purpureus, Climacium dendroides (photo 7), Didymodon insulanus, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis and some attractive tufts of Bryum dichotomum var. barnesii (photos 5 & 6). Campylium protensum and Ctenidium molluscum were frequent along the adjacent track.

Bryum headaches

I'm sure I'm not the first to suffer from this terrible affliction!

I was down at Porthkerry with the family yesterday and after paying homage to the Southbya colony which Gareth found last year (which was very easy to find, on the first bit of dripping cliff after heading west from the beach) I collected some Bryum samples from the limestone cobbles at the back of the beach (general habitat photo below - bryophytes were mostly out of frame to the left of the shot).

These look to be two different species, but I'm confused by both of them. The first (photos below) has long, straight leaves with a longly exurrent nerve (untoothed) and prominent (often pinkish), recurved leaf borders. The basal cells are unicolorous with the rest of the leaf; rhizoids are brown and coarsely papillose and I couldn't find any tubers. I ran it down to couplet 32 in Smith, but at this point the lack of capsules left me stuck.

The second species at least had capsules, but attempting to key it out using Smith led to various unlikely possibilities. This moss also has short shoots but with much smaller leaves (approx. dichotomum size) that are strikingly concave. Leaves are obscurely bordered and with margins recurved usually on one side only. The nerve is excurrent and slightly toothed and the leaf bases are reddish. Again, rhizoids are papillose (but more finely so) and I couldn't find any tubers. Photos below.

 

Associates included Barbula sardoa, Hypnum resupinatum (I think - unusually small) and Homalothecium lutescens. I hope the photos and text will be helpful - any suggestions appreciated, thanks.

Bryum bonanza in artificial dune slacks

Margam Tip currently has a good amount of bare wet sand around the newest pools, much of which is covered with a bewildering array of Bryum forms. B. dichotomum and B. gemmiferum appear to be the two most abundant species, but there's quite a bit of B. argenteum, a little B. pseudotriquetrum and in the drier areas, what I suspect is frequent B. algovicum. Some julaceous shoots resemble B. dyffrynense, though id as gemmiferum or indeterminate seems inevitable! I'll hopefully find time over the weekend to take a closer look at the collections I made.

Penclawdd copperworks slag ridge

This bulbiferous Pohlia was growing on a slag ridge on the saltmarsh at Penclawdd. Associates included an interesting mix such as Archidium alternifolium, Didymodon fallax, Riccia sorocarpa, Scapania irrigua & Bryum cf gemmiferum (tbc). The Pohlia bulbils appeared to be restricted to singles in axils and were 350µm long, the plants were all very small with striking red stems and yellowy leaves.
[NB. I previously posted a short note on the Gower Wildlife blog about this site HERE]

Bryum dichotomum (barnseii form)

Archidium in spring tide inundation zone amongst Plantago coronata