Bessie's Meadow

This afternoon I decided to try and relocate the Pterogonium gracile and Hedwigia ciliata, both recorded by Quentin in 1969 at Bessie's Meadow at the north end of Rhossili Down. My other aim was to give the paltry 28 species tetrad total for SS49A a boost. As I started the walk up the hill I was amazed to find some healthy patches of Pterogonium on the very first rock I stopped to look at in the middle of the path (photos below)... result! It turned out that small colonies were scattered across the boulder field, especially in the lower parts.

plants in photo below part of the colony
on the largest rock in the photo above 

The highlight however was a boulder supporting scattered patches of Porella obtusata, new for the county. The large tongue-shaped lobules with larger central cells are diagnostic characters, but the habitat on siliceous boulders seems to be another helpful pointer.

As usual, I have a batch of other samples I've yet to check, the most promising perhaps being Frullania crusts which have the potential to contain fragifolia [sadly not, tamarisci was all I could find]. I also collected a few Grimmia samples in the hope of finding lisae, though I'm expecting these will be trichophylla [they were], plus there was an interesting tiny Fissidens with ripe fruit and long perichaetal leaves which looked interesting [see posting above]. Non-bryo highlights were 3 Dartford Warblers in an area where they've not been recorded previously. All in all it was a productive couple of hours and definitely worth another visit. The boulder field is extensive and I only managed to look at a small sample of it, plus there's Quentin's Hedwigia still to relocate.

Glamorgan tetrad map update

At last I've finally been through all of the BBS data set, which together with the SEWBReC upload, means the only outstanding records missing from this tetrad update should be any records made over this summer. Cross-referencing the BBS data set enabled me to find those records of Sam's that are missing from the SEWBReC data and I was pleased to find a reasonable number of Roy's records at a suitable resolution for tetrad mapping. There were however, lots of hectad records that I did not re-enter (other than a few rares), so the main discrepancy between the MapMate dataset and that of the BBS should now only be these. For ref, I have archived all the records from the BBS data set so they do not end up as duplicates, but I'll make sure that Charles and George get these when they next sync, so they have the full data set on MapMate.

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.

More Ulota on rock

Following Barry's recent post, I thought it was worth posting some photos of Ulota bruchii growing on a sandstone block on the northern part of Merthyr Common in March 2015. The rock was situated in an exposed moorland position and the Ulota came as quite a surprise. There were three cushions in total, two of which are visible within the large patch of black lichen in the photo below.

Ulota bruchii growing on an exposed sandstone block

Close up of one of the U. bruchii cushions

Ulota query

Even though the whitish spreading/erect peristome is suggestive of drummondii, I'm suspecting this is just bruchii. The habitat was unusual in that it was growing on rock (ORS quartz conglomerate) fully exposed on a south-facing slope on Cefn Bryn. I've not looked at it under the microscope yet, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd be interested to hear. Possibly one to hang on to giving the proposed split?

dry voucher

wetted plants in situ

habitat

Little else of any real note, though a good area of the perennial favourite Ptilidium ciliare amongst Heather and lichens, new for SS58.

Rustwort at Whiteford

Nowellia curvifolia was noted growing on a small, well-decayed, fallen branch of Corsican Pine under one of the conifer blocks at Whiteford Burrows on Tuesday, this being unexpected at such a dry and coastal location. Lophocolea heterophylla was the only direct associate noted on the log, although the usual larger pleurocarps Pseudoscleropodium purum and Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus were abundant in the immediate vicinity.

Nowellia growing on log centre-front, an unexpectedly well-illuminated and dry coastal site

Sam’s Pembs and Carms bryofloras show just one coastal record for Pembs in what appears to be a sheltered location and David Holyoak’s Cornish bryoflora also only shows one coastal locality. The new atlas however, does indicate that this is a species which is spreading, so perhaps we can expect to find it in the lowlands a little more frequently.

The distribution map shows Nowellia is well-recorded by Charles and Hilary in woodlands of NPT, although it would be interesting to know in which habitats and on what timber they have found it?

Phascum cuspidatum (Cuspidate Earth-moss)

Compared to Gower and east Glamorgan, there's not much arable land in Neath Port Talbot. But there are some promising sites on the southern edge of the county between Margam and the Kenfig River, although unofficial access to most of them is not possible. However,H and I managed to look around 2 small patches near the east gate to Margam Park yesterday. Both support a nice mixture of common arable species such as  Dicranella staphylina, D. schreberiana, Oxyrrhynchium hians, Trichodon cylindricus, Tortula truncata and an assortment of common Bryum species e.g. argenteum, dichotomum, rubens). Sadly, we couldn't find any crystalworts or hornworts, but one of the fields had a substantial population of Phascum cuspidatum (= Tortula acaulon in Ron Porly's excellent field guide to Arable Bryophytes).

Phascum cuspidatum (Cuspidate Earth-moss) in arable field near Margam, 

Tortula truncata (Common Pottia) in arable field near Margam

Phascum cuspidatum is often described as a common arable species, but there are few records of it in VC41. Roy described it as rare in Glamorgan and Sam has commented on its scarcity in Carmarthenshire (compared to Pembrokeshire). However, there's lots of arable land in the Vale of Glamorgan that must be suitable for this predominantly lowland species.