Ulota calvescens in Neath Port Talbot

After looking at lots of Ulota specimens in the Pentrecwydau forestry between Resolven and Glyn Neath, which were mostly  bruchii/crispa types,  a suitable looking tuft with tallish sporophytes and sparsely hairy calyptra was spotted on a branch of one of the hundreds of willows (mostly Salix cinera) that occur along the service road at SN8425/0482. It was growing in an epiphytic community that included Orthotrichum affine, O. pulchellum, Cryphaea heteromalla, Metzgeria furcata and a few others. It was impossible to get a photo of the plant in situ, but we managed to sample a few shoots for identification. The photo below shows the obvious vitta, which I presume confirms the identification.

Oceanic riches

Yesterday was rather a mixed day - exploring a wonderful ravine in Snowdonia and seeing some top quality oceanic liverworts and mosses, but knowing that it would have been notified as a SSSI ten years ago but for an inadequate bryophyte survey then which suggested it wasn't up to scratch.  Now it is under threat and there may not be anything that can be done because of its lack of protected status.

The ravine has a series of waterfalls, cascades and boulder chokes, and some good base-rich rock at its upper end.  Previous records are of Harpalejeunea molleri and Sphenolobopsis pearsonii: I refound the former but missed the latter.  More tantalising was a 19th century record of Paraleptodontium recurvifolium, which has old records from 10+ N Wales sites but recent ones from just 2 or 3 and it's possible that some/many/all of these result from misidentification of the related Oxystegus daldinianus (until recently considered an extreme form of Trichostomum tenuirostre).  There's a lot of O. dalinianus in the ravine, but no sign of Paraleptodontium.

As well as Harpalejeunea, which was abundant over ca 8x1m of a base-rich rockface and also occurred on a boulder downstream, there was one rock covered with Drepanolejeunea hamatifolia (a new site) and another with a few tufts of Colura calyptrifolia (also a new site).  Whereas Colura is now commonplace on trees in southern Wales, it remains very rare on rocks in its traditional ravine habitat.

Highlight of the day was spotting a patch of Bartramia halleriana about 3m up the ravine side, below which were a few fallen tufts growing among Hyocomium.  This is the first SH64 record of this Nationally Scarce moss.

 

Other goodies included Anthelia julacea growing over algal gunk, four patches of Andreaea alpina along with A. falcata and A. rupestris, locally abundant Isothecium holtii, Racomitrium ellipticum, fruiting Heterocladium wulfsbergii, Campylopus fragilis, Rhabdoweisia crenulata, Hygrobiella laxifolia, Plagiochila bifaria and P. spinulosa, Riccardia palmata, Jungermannia hyalina and J. paroica, Anomobryum julaceum, Entosthodon attenuatus, Conocephalum salebrosum and Grimmia hartmannii.  All in all a pretty amazing place, but Snowdonia bryology in a nutshell.

Ulota calvescens in Glanymor Park, Loughor

Two tufts found in a 20 minute search, one on Salix cf. x fragilis, another on Populus alba. I only had my phone so the shots are pretty hopeless, but they still convey the general impression of sparsely hairy calyptrae and longish setae. Even though the capsules were unripe and presumably the setae not fully elongated, this feature immediately caught the eye. The presence of a vitta seems to nail the id.

Note the leaf edge is curled up in the lower image making the vitta appear closer to the margin than it actually is.

Ulota calvescens - now fruiting on a tree near you

This photo was taken last April at Carmel, but the season for spotting this increasingly frequent moss has now begun.  I found a few tufts with young capsules and classically sparse-haired calyptrae today near Pembrey.  The very long seta is also characteristic. 

Beware that some Ulota calvescens can be hairier than this, resembling U bruchii, so you sometimes need to check the mature leaves from lower parts of a stem (ie the darker green/brownish leaves not fresh young ones) for a 'vitta' of long, narrow, hyaline cells running up from the leaf base about midway across from nerve to margin.  It's possible that some U bruchii and U crispa might be this sparsely haired, but that would be a rare occurrence.

Ulota calvescens had two Welsh and only one or two English records at the time of the first Atlas, and when I published the Pembs Flora in 2010 my Pembs record was mirrored by two in SW England and the two historic N Wales ones.  Graham and I have now found several colonies in Brecs, Carms and Ceredigion, and today's record is the 10th for Carms.  There are also lots of records from the Pennines, we had it in Dorset last summer, and even in East Sussex on the last BBS Spring meeting.  This would have been unthinkable 10 years ago! 

People might have overlooked hairy forms, and these seem to be relatively frequent in the Pennines, but I doubt very much that these classic sparsely hairy forms would have been missed.  I am absolutely sure that this is another spreading Colura-type bryophyte that is benefitting from coniferisation, reduced pollution and climate change.

Marsupella emarginata

Marsupella marginata habitat, Corrwg Fechan Valley

Minimal torment here, and a species that all of you know well, but a nice record of it in one of the headstream cwms of the Afan Valley, near Glyncorrwg. The habitat is a dripping wet, north-facing sandstone rock face where it grows in a small area as pendant mats with Pellia epiphylla, Hyocomium armoricum and Diplophyllum albicans. Drier areas of rock face in the vicinity are plastered with Amphidium mougeotii.

It looks like var. aquatica to me, which is also found at Craig y Llyn (not far away as the crow flies).

The leaves have a very shallow notch, the shoots are relatively large and the habitat is right for var. aquatica. Apparently there can be some overlap between var. emarginata and var. aquatica.

Marsupella emarginata leaves with recurved margins

Under the microscope the recurved leaf margins, which confirm M. emarginata, are easy to see.
 Watson's description draws attention to the rounded cell lumen and the the well-developed trigones, which can be seen in the photo below.

I'm not sure to what extent other Marsupella spp. show such a thick-walled cell structure. Perhaps Sam or Graham can comment on that.

Ctenidium torment

Tom Blockeel just returned a specimen of Ctenidium molluscum that I had collected as var. condensatum from upland crags in Brecks - a dense specimen with some long shoots and orange tinge (and fruiting).  However, Tom didn't think it looked any different to var. molluscum under the microscope (and it didn't have the strongly plicate leaves of true condensatum) - Tom admits that he doesn't really understand var. condensatum and that he also sees similar large forms of C. molluscum with an orange tinge in the uplands.    So what is most of the Ctenidium we see in the uplands - surely not another variety?.   Over the years I have tended to avoid trying to identify Ctenidium to variety as I never felt very confident with them, but weedy looking woodland forms certainly looks very different to these upland plants. When Johnny Turner dropped a specimen of var. robustum he had collected on Mynydd Du on my desk, it at least did look different to other Ctenidium I had seen, although when I looked at a few herbarium specimens from Scotland in NMW, the Carms plant seemed much less robust.  I guess we need to find and encourage an enthusiastic student to do some molecular analysis on this one.

Tortella torment

Cliffs at Penmaen overlooking Threecliffs Bay
where all of Glamorgan's four Tortella species grow

Below left: Tortella sp. growing with Pleurochaete squarrosa (in centre of the image) becoming crisped. Below right: T. flavovirens sample collection point.

My records show the Nationally Scarce Tortella inclinata was first recorded in the Penmaen-Threecliffs area by Sam in 2010, who subsequently found it to be locally abundant on a section of cliff slope with scattered patches elsewhere in the vicinity. Although I recorded it nearby last year for my first time, the collection was more fortuitous than anything else and in an attempt to learn the field appearance of this species, yesterday, I took a few images and collected a sample of what I thought was probably inclinata growing abundantly on a sandy cliff slope about 100m east of Sam’s large colony. Under the microscope it was clear I was wrong as the costa on the adaxial side was covered by quadrate cells (except the third near the base). Furthermore, the leaves became highly crisped upon drying so unfortunately all I'd photographed and collected was flavovirens. [At least that's what I thought! After making this post I found a second sample I'd left in my coat pocket, which I was convinced at the time was probably inclinata; to my relief this turned out to be the case. Which species is represented in the general shot above alongside the Pleurochaete I'm now not sure as there's not really enough detail in the image. The difference between the two species using a lens is in fact rather striking when they are side-by-side, the shoots of inclinata being larger and more erect, with a stronger nerve appearing more prominent in a more boat-shaped leaf apex, reminiscent of Trichostomum crispulum]. Plants showing these characters were widespread on the cliff I looked at, but it's interesting that both species grow mixed in together.

Tortella flavovirens

Tortella inclinata

T. flavovirens foreground, T. inclinata behind

After reading Smith I'm now wondering how similar the resemblance is between flavovirens and the short-leaved form of tortuosa and if there is a safe way of separating the two, as he only mentions the degree of crisping upon drying; this was considerable in my specimen, which might indicate tortuosa?

For interest here are the vc41 distribution maps of our four Tortella species: