Tâf Fechan [SO01K square bash]

Left vc42, right vc41

As I was in Merthyr on Friday and I had a spare hour, I made a quick sojourn into SO01K, which was on a paltry 10 species. Even within my limited time slot I was able to quickly add an additional 64 species to the list for what is undoubtedly a much richer partial tetrad. There was also interest before reaching my target the square, when crossing Pontsarn viaduct I noticed a nice colony of Grimmia orbicularis on the Brecon side, new for vc42 according to the blog county lists.

Once in the square a large decorticated log was found to hold a good colony of Riccardia palmata (below; photo 1) and the limestone outcrops & boulders supported abundant drapes of Neckera crispa on dry cliffs with sheets of Conocephalum salebrosum in damper sections. The most interesting species of the drier sections were Loeskeobryum brevirostre (photo 2), Scapania aspera (photo 3) and Platydictya jungermannioides (photos 4-7), the latter new for Glamorgan with 3 small colonies noted in crevices, but with plenty of the same habitat, it seems likely there will be a strong population at this site.

 

Interest on the wetter sections was provided by Cololejeunea calcarea, Eucladium verticillatum, Leiocolea bantriensis (below; photo 1) and Seligeria acutifolia (photos 2 & 3). Well worth a revist - park on the vc42 side of the bridge, cross over and drop down from the Glamorgan side - very easy access.

 

 

Chasing ghosts

I headed to Hensol Forest yesterday afternoon with thoughts of Ghostwort in my mind. There is a lot of Sphagnum in the wet woodland just to the north of Pysgodlyn Mawr, which seemed a good place to search for it. As it turned out, however, there wasn't a lot of birch in the woodland and it didn't take me long to roll back (and replace) the carpets of Sphagnum from around the base of the few birch trees - unsurprisingly, no Cryptothallus was forthcoming (all I found was a small toad).

This left some time for general recording so I had a poke around the rotten logs nearby, with one particularly splendid example being almost covered in Riccardia palmata and a few smaller patches of Nowellia curvifolia.

On the other side of the lake, a large willow had a tuft of Ulota which looked promising for calvescens - and so it proved when checked under the microscope (the rows of elongated cells inside the leaf margins were very clear).

These and a few other additions took the total for tetrad ST07N from 75 to 85 (the majority of the previous records coming from a visit Sam made to Pysgodlyn Mawr exactly five years earlier).

I headed a bit further south into ST07M, which had a list of only 6 bryophyte species. Following a small stream through the mixed woodland bumped this total up to 52, including Orthodontium lineare, a bit more Nowellia and, more excitingly, two patches of Loeskeobryum brevirostre.

Among these records L. brevirostre, U. calvescens and R. palmata are all new for the Vale - which highlights just how under-recorded this part of the county is.

Damp bryo birthday bash

I took the day off work on Tuesday with the intention of a birthday bryo outing to the hills, but the morning rain put me off attempting anything at altitude. So it turned into a woodland day instead - less extreme but thoroughly enjoyable.

I started with a trip to see the Lepidozia cupressina colony at Caerphilly Mountain (found by Peter Sturgess in 2015). It was much easier to find than on our frosty visit in January 2016, though I only found patches of it on three stones (Bazzania trilobata was much more extensive).

 

After that I nipped up to Nant Gelliwion Woodland SSSI on the edge of Pontypridd, where we only scratched the surface during a fungus group foray in September. The site held records of 18 common bryo species, mostly from past CCW surveys, but had clearly never been properly explored.

I spent a couple of hours exploring the stream and the north-facing slope of the woodland, which produced a few species of local significance including two which I think are new for ST08. The best of these was Metzgeria conjugata, which occupied the downstream side of a stream boulder (outlined in photo below). Also of note was Heterocladium heteropterum var flaccidum.

A few other often sterile species were seen with capsules, including Tetraphis pellucida, Homalia trichomanoides and a large, dark green form of Ctenidium molluscum (photos below).

 

Many of the decorticated logs in the wood were covered in Nowellia and one had a couple of patches of Riccardia palmata. A more recently fallen tree held some Frullania tamarisci.

I also have some hair-pointless Racomitrium on which to attempt a nerve section - given the streamside location I'm hoping this might be R. affine.

70 taxa were recorded within the wood; another visit to explore the other side of the valley would surely add more. Additional exploration along the lanes and in the conifer plantation elsewhere in ST08P would probably take this tetrad to a very respectable species total.

Nant Cae-dudwg

In February I made a start on ST09W by visiting the spoil tips north of Cilfynydd. In a blog post at the time (see here) I mentioned that I was saving the Nant Cae-dudwg (in the same tetrad) for when I had a little more time, and being lucky enough to have a few spare hours this morning I thought it was about time I paid this area a visit.

 

I walked the length of the footpath within ST0992, which runs along the north bank of the stream through both wooded and open areas. After feeling a bit rusty for the first hour (I hadn't done any square bashing for 6 weeks) things picked up and by the time I'd reached the NE corner of the monad a good list of taxa had been accumulated, albeit with nothing of special interest. The highlights up to this point were a few plants of Colura calyptrifolia on willow (the spindly diagonal trunk in front of the holly in the photo below) and quite a lot of Physcomitrium pyriforme (photo) on a ditch bank alongside the access track.

 

I was about to head back but a stony flush in the woodland across the stream caught my eye so I waded across for a look. There was no obvious excitement here, but nearby a rotten ash log was covered in Nowellia curvifolia and Riccardia palmata (photo).

A few metres further on another rotten log had more Riccardia and quite a lot of Trichocolea tomentella, which extended beyond the log over quite a large area, looking rather fetching among the marsh marigolds.

75 species were recorded in the field and I still have plenty of samples to go through, so along with the almost entirely different flora of the coal tips this tetrad will now be up to a pretty respectable total.

Upper Clydach Valley

Three logs with some healthy patches of Riccardia palmata (above) were the highlight of a one hour search in woodland within the Upper Clydach Valley above Rhyd-y-fro this morning. As with my visit to the adjacent square last week I never actually made it to the river, such was the quality of the feeder stream. Associates of the Riccardia logs included Calypogeia muelleriana, Nowellia curvifolia, Plagiothecium curvifolium, and some lovely fruiting Tetraphis pellucida. Atrichum crispum was noted along a peaty watercourse and there were swathes of Plagiochila porelloides (below) along the roadside bank of St Illtyd’s Walk, all adding to the enjoyment of an outing on a refreshingly pleasant day for a change. SN70D (NPT) finished on 68, with a few samples still to check.

P. porelloides along St Illtyd's Walk

male P. porelloides

Foel Fynyddau

There's a nice 3 mile mossy walk along a forestry track from Pontrhydyfen to the top of Foel Fynyddau, one of the highest points in the lower Afan Valley - this is the forestry track which has the population of Distichium inclinatum, which I've mentioned before. Much of the hill is clothed in pine forests with Scots Pine, Lodgepole Pine and Macedonian Pine, but there's also a fair amount of Sessile Oak woodland there too. Luxuriant banks of bryophytes line the route and there's lots of Scapania irrigua in the hepatic mats along the damp, gritty edges of the track. This is one of the species that scores highly in Sam's Carmarthen forestry track list. On Foel Fynyddau it grows with Jungermannia gracillima, Nardia scalaris and occasional Riccardia multifida.

Scapania irrigua, Foel Fynyddau

About 2 miles up the track there are some old log piles at the side of the track, which I presume are pine. Some are plastered in bryophytes with Nowellia curvifolia and Tetraphis pellucida.

 Log pile covered in bryophytes, Foel Fynyddau

On some piles we noted several patches of Riccardia palmata (the conspicuous, darker green patches in the photo above), which is a nice record for the Afan valley. It is found in a similar habitat in Crynant Forest, but it seems to be rather scarce in NPT despite the abundance of suitable habitat. 

Riccardia palmata, Foel Fynyddau

Other things of note along this route include abundant Dryopteris cambrensis and the only population of Tricholoma equestre (Yellow Knight) that I've ever seen in Wales (see recent post on Gower Wildlife blog).

Riccardia palmata - Brecks

I have been playing around with a dummy Brecks data set and Mapmate - following Charles' Riccardia palmata post I pulled up a tetrad map of its distribution in Brecks.  At moment the data only includes records at 1km or better, but at some point I will try and better localise some of the many 5km records and add those in as well.  The map below therefore doesn't include a few 5km records that are illustrated in Ray's Flora - e.g.  SO14SW, SN93NW . The species seems to be reasonably well distributed in the county.

Riccardia palmata (Palmate Germanderwort)

While on a fleeting visit to the Nedd Fechan Valley to check out an itinerary for next week's field course, I stopped to admire the abundance of Nowellia curvifolia on the decorticated logs near Sgwd Ddwli waterfall (Brecs) and noted one small patch of Riccardia palmata growing with it. A few years ago H and I found a large patch on a pile of rotten Sitka wood in Crynant Forest, but the site was disturbed by forestry operations and the colony has since disappeared (even though some of the log pile remains). Perhaps it is sometimes ephemeral (?). I remember Sam telling me that it was surprisingly scarce (or apparently so) in south Wales and Ray Woods comments similarly in The Mosses and Liverworts of Brecknock. It's easy to miss. I don't think Martha Newton recorded it her survey, but it may be well known to others at this site; it is certainly not unexpected in moist valleys like this. For the record, it's in monad SN9009 (tetrad SN90E). Graham, let me know if you want the full GR.