Crymlyn Burrows

A patch of Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruraliformis lacking hairpoints was something I've not come across previously. I could find any reference to varietal status, though the reduced hairpoint character seems analogous to that of S. montana var. calva. The site is comprised brownfield dune vegetation on rubble and sand behind the hard engineered sea defences. Lots of Glaucium flavum too, with close to 300 counted.

At Penllergaer, a large mound of Leucobryum glaucum that had developed at the base of a large Rhododendron at  was new for SS69, though the tree had been cut down and the regrowth provided minimal shade / humidity. It looks like this area could be lost to the expanding residential development taking place at the site. 

Cwm Dulais (Pontarddulais)

This afternoon I spent 40 mins of Alfie-time looking at a small part of what is a much wider area of south-facing coal spoil in Cwm Dulais SN613036 - how many Cwm Dulais's must there be in Wales! An unremarkable total of 31 bryos were recorded, along with what I'm suspecting must be Galium parisiense, which was locally frequent. I'm not sure if G. parisiense has been recorded on coal spoil before, but it's clearly well adapted to it and would be worth checking for on other tips. Bryologiocally, there was nothing of great note, but it was an interesting assemblage all the same, with frequent Archidium alternifolium (photo 3), Homalothecium lutescens, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum (photos 3-4) and occasional Calliergonella lindbergii, Didymodon ferrugineus, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (photo 4) & Trichostomum crispulum. Nearby, Fontinalis antipyretica and F. squamosa were noted growing side-by-side in the river.

Fruiting ruraliformis at Whiteford

A random stop at what looked potential habitat to try and find Mibora away from the now tiny remnant population at the regular site proved to be unsuccessful, but I was surprised at the sheer abundance of fruiting Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (above left). The new Atlas states that capsules are rare, as evidenced by there being no Carms records and just 1 Pembs record. Associates at Whiteford included S. r. var. ruralis (not fruiting) along with scattered plants of Hornungia petraea (above right). A fruiting shoot is shown below left and leaves of both vars. from the site are shown below right.

Tricky Syntrichia

A clump of Syntrichia, which was sparsely fruiting, confused me until I pulled it apart and realised there were in fact three different Syntrichia taxa all growing together. The sample was collected from the very mossy roof of Pendine's Sunbeam Diner, whilst balancing on a fence to get access to the lower tiles; not forgetting to grab a few pics while I was there! S. ruralis var. ruraliformis was very obviously different and I assumed the rest, including the fruiting material, was going to be montana (which looked to be the dominant species). But, in fact the capsules belonged to shoots of ruralis var. ruralis, which is said to fruit infrequently. Under the microscope the leaves can't really be confused, but looking at the clump both macroscopically and with a hand lens the picture was puzzling, with a range of apparent intermediate shoots present. Single-species colonies are normally straight forward, but I've not encountered this three-way association previously - at least not knowingly!

Above: Fruiting shoots and leaves taken from fruiting shoots.

Below: Leaves taken from non-fruiting shoots of S. montana [NB. the field of view is the same size for all microscope shots]

Broughton SS49B

Twlc Point, Broughton Bay

From one shy-fruiting pleurocarp to another, this time Homalothecium lutescens (photos below) growing on the north-facing sandy slopes above Twlc Point.

A little further west along the coast, the salt-sprayed Limestone cliffs at Foxhole Point supported a disappointingly impoverished bryoflora in comparison with that on South Gower. Tortella flavovirens was the most common species, growing on rock as well as soil, with the most frequent associates being Amblystegium serpens and Didymodon tophaceus.

Whilst the tarmac in the caravan park was more productive than the cliffs, with species of interest including Dialytrichia mucronata (photo below) growing amongst Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruralis, along with a little ssp. ruralifomis (bottom left in lower photo), I still only managed to raise the tetrad total to 51.

Waungron, Grovesend

I found some Didymodon fallax in fruit during this morning's Alfie-time, at a small coal spoil site (SN599020) near home that has long been overgrown with dense mat of Calliergonella cuspidata. The fruiting plants, found growing on a crust of soil on a mound of broken concrete (photo below), had leaves considerably more recurved than the bulk of plants noted elsewhere at the site. Although the leaves and reddish colour of the lower leaves suggested ferrugineus (a species for which capsules are unrecorded in Britain), closer examination confirmed it was indeed just fallax. Elongate cells on the adaxial side of the costa ruled out insulanus, although I must confess these cells weren't as defined as illustrated (photo below).

There were no species of any real note, but Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruraliformis and fruiting Dicranella varia provided some local interest.

Remotest north Glamorgan

It's a long slog across the Breconshire moorland to get to Llech Sychryd on the Nant Hir (SN991073), but this appeared from the OS map to be a potentially interesting waterfall (with HEP potential so needing bryological exploration) so it needed to be checked.  Was it worth it?...

No, not really.  I noted 78 species on the east bank, but most were commonplace bryophytes of wooded valleys.  Highlights were Jungermannia obovata on a seeping shale rockface at SN99190736 - initially misidentified as J. sphaerocarpa but upon checking found to have a perigynium - and Neckera crispa & Gymnostomum aeruginosum on a slightly base-enriched outcrop at SN99060728, but the area behind the dramatic waterfall was very base-poor.  Supporting cast included Heterocladium heteropterum, Saccogyna viticulosa, Fissidens celticus, Lejeunea lamacerina, Gymnocolea inflata, Jungermannia pumila, Bartramia pomiformis, Ditrichum heteromallum and Sphagnum squarrosum.  I mustn't grumble, but I'd hyped the place up in my mind and walked 3km to get there.  The massive rock slab through which the waterfall cuts was really spectacular, but sadly it was in VC42 and I didn't have time to make a list.

The tetrad list was bumped up by a few ruderal species on the Nant Hir Reservoir dam, including Bryum pallescens, Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum and extremely inland Syntrichia ruraliformis.  There appears to be just one previous VC41 record from the tetrad - Barry's Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus from Nant-hir viaduct - so my 99 species are almost all new.