Scilly exotics

I've enjoyed other recent holiday reports on this blog so I hope you'll indulge me writing another one, from a bit closer to home...

It's a bit of a cliche to say that the Isles of Scilly feel like a world away from mainland Britain, despite being just 28 miles off the end of Cornwall. But after my first visit to the archipelago earlier this month I could hardly disagree with the sentiment. The flora in particular felt very exotic, with the bryophytes being no exception. Many species that are common in South Wales were scarce, as would be expected on a series of small, remote islands. The epiphyte flora in particular seemed impoverished, with most tree trunks being lichen-dominated instead - even Frullania dilatata was somewhat localised. This was adequately compensated for by the plethora of exotic species (liverworts mostly) which are scarce or absent on the mainland, some of which are imports from the Southern Hemisphere and some possibly from the Mediterranean.

The fun started at Lower Moors nature reserve on St Mary's, where I got excited by an extensive yellowy patch of Telaranea murphyae growing by a path to a bird hide (photos below). I thought this liverwort was restricted to Tresco but I later discovered that the population at Lower Moors had been found in 2003. It appears that the taxonomic position of T. murphyae remains somewhat uncertain; it has not been found as a native in the Southern Hemisphere and was described new to science from Tresco, though it may just be a form of T. tetradactyla. A potentially new population was found later in the week by a path near the lifeboat station at Hugh Town (lower photo).

The excitement really started on Tresco, where a flowerbed in the Abbey Gardens was dotted with the lovely rosettes of Riccia crystallina intermingled with numerous Sphaerocarpos plants (photos below). I collected three Sphaerocarpos samples and after a few days incubation each produced mature spores to enable species identification; pleasingly both species were represented with two samples being S. michelii (spore photo bottom left) and one S. texanus (bottom right).

 

Telaranea murphyae was seen in a few locations within the gardens, along with Lophocolea semiteres and L. bispinosa, but was much more abundant along Abbey Drive where extensive yellow sheets of it covered the ground wherever there was shade from trees (upper photos, below). Growing with it was Calyptrochaeta apiculata (lower photos) - in the Britain Isles this Southern Hemisphere species is known only from here and single sites in Sussex and Ireland.

Bulb fields on St Mary's revealed more Sphaerocarpos michelii, Riccia crystallina and a single rosette of Riccia subbifurca (unless it is R. crozalsii - but I don't think so).

Even the small garden of our cottage had a flowerbed with plenty of fruiting Anthoceros punctatus (photo) and a stone covered in Scorpiurium circinatum.

I'm already looking forward to making another visit sometime...

Anthoceros punctatus in Ystradgynlais

Found in disturbed pasture today and wonder if this might be new for vc42? Voucher retained if necessary. Horns still 'in bud', but plenty ripe antheridia on view...

leaf section showing aereolate thaluls

 antheridia (small tick marks = 2.5 microns)

A weekend on Lundy - mosses and liverworts

Clare and I spent the bank holiday weekend on the magical Lundy Island, sailing from Bideford after dropping Bea and Johnny with their grandparents in Sussex.  South Wales was visible from Lundy (when it wasn't raining), so perhaps it isn't stretching the Blog title too much to mention some of the bryophytes I bumped into during our visit.  Clare enjoys walking for walking's sake, whereas I walk to get to recording sites, but we had a good compromise where Clare strode between headlands and waited with a book whilst I made a few stops in between; we did plenty of walking together too.

On our first day included a walk up the west coast of the island as far as the Halfway Wall.  The path down to the Battery produced Anthoceros punctatus (photo) and Tritomaria exsectiformis (photo), whilst rocky heathland a little further north held Kurzia sylvatica.  A flushed area (photo) with Bryum alpinum also supported Fossombronia sp with violet rhizoids, which I suspect is F. maritima; I'm growing some on in a tube in the hope of sporophytes.  Pogonatum nanum (photo) was fruiting beautifully on a bank nearby.

Our second day was marred by heavy rain in the morning, but we ventured out a few times along the east side of the island.  Bryological highlight was Frullania teneriffae (new for VC4) alongside Scapania gracilis in the VC Quarry (photo).  Exploration of the wooded Millcombe valley produced Epipterygium tozeri, Pohlia lutescens and Plagiochila asplenioides, whilst Schistidium rivulare was a surprise on rocks in the Quarter Wall Pond.

Our third and final day involved a stomp along 'The High Street' to the north end of the island (4 km away from The Village) followed by a walk back along the east side.  Lepidozia cupressina (photo) and Dicranum scottianum (photo) grew together on a tor just south of Gannets Coombe - like Dartmoor in miniature - and there were Cephalozia connivens and C. lunulifolia nearby.  Salt-sprayed turf near the northern lighthouse held Hennediella heimii, and a Bryum nearby looked interesting but was unfortunately non-fertile.  Finally, an exploration of Landing Bay while we waited for the boat back to the mainland produced Schistidium maritimum and Weissia perssonii at last: most of the island is too steep to allow descent to the maritime areas favoured by these species.

I don't actually know how many of the 100+ species that I recorded (with 8-fig GPS readings) were new for the island.  The BBS dataset seems extremely incomplete, especially for liverworts, with some broad-date 20th century records and a list made by Mark Pool in 1997; I added nearly 30 species to the hectad tally according to the BBS data.  However, Jean Paton's data from her visit in 1975 does not appear in the BBS dataset and several of my 'additions' were already recorded by her (unsurprisingly!), and Jean spotted several liverwort during her "few hours" on the island that I missed.  The Lundy Field Society reports may include other liverworts, but the issues that I looked at didn't have anything.  Mosses seem to be even more under-recorded, and the only reference I can find is a list from 1959 with IDs by Michael Proctor, and it is that list which forms the basis of the BBS data.  I will, of course, make sure that my records go to the BBS and the Lundy Field Society.

As well as the bryophytes, we saw Lundy's famous Lundy Cabbage (none of the plants by the paths were in flower unfortunately), Balm-leaved Figwort, Primrose Peerless and Ophioglossum azoricum.  Star lichens were Teloschistes flavicans and Anaptychia ciliaris subsp mamillata.  Bird highlights were the Lundy rarities Yellowhammer and Stock Dove, which I found during our wanderings, and there were various Warblers around, Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Whimbrel etc.  Lundy really is a fabulous place for a wildlife-rich holiday!

Anthoceros punctatus revisited

At last, abundant sporophytes on the Afan Forest Park population.

Anthoceros habitat, Afan Forest Park

Abundant sporophytes on Anthoceros punctatus, Afan Forest Park

Anthoceros punctatus, Afan Forest Park

Anthoceros punctatus in Afan Forest Park

The Afan Portal of the Gyfylchi Tunnel, Afan Forest Park

There's a significant amount of Anthoceros punctatus to the right of the breeze-block-ed tunnel portal and on the right bank (approx. SS81709526). Not many 'horns' yet but the colony should be very photogenic in a week or so. Lots of Pseudephemerum nitidum and Fossombronia wondraczeckii/pusilla here too.

Anthoceros punctatus with a few 'horns'

Anthoceros punctatus  thallus with abundant antheridia and 'horns in progress'

Anthoceros punctatus antheridia (body length c. 120 microns)

Access to this spot has been very difficult in the past, but there has obviously been a deliberate effort to clear the area recently. Given the proposal to convert the Rhondda Tunnel to a cycleway it is possible that similar developments may occur here. It is probably NRW managed land, so some measure of awareness and protection for the colony may be prudent. 

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!