Is Funaria hygrometrica declining?

I knocked up this plot to examine what percentage of my bryophyte records from VC35 each year were Funaria hygrometrica.  I'm sure that my recording habitats have changed a bit since 2000, but then and now I was tetrad-bashing, so visited 'grot' habitats as well as nice places, and recorded all that I saw rather than just noting rarities.  I was obviously inactive here in 2009-2015, but have corrected for variation in recording effort by looking at percentage of records per year rather than actual number of Funaria records.  Since 2016, when VC35 recording really kicked back in, my sightings of Funaria are extremely low.  Certainly the trend appears to be downwards.

This moss was considered commonplace when I started bryophyte recording in the 1990s, and grew on tracks and pavements, in plant pots and occasionally in natural habitats, as well as the traditional 'fire sites'.  Three of my four sightings this year have been in rather 'natural' places - 2 forestry tracks and a mountain path - with one on a road verge.  God forbid, but could this be another victim of N pollution?  It used to grow where there was a bit of enrichment, for example by a bonfire, but perhaps most of our environment is so N-enriched that Funaria is no longer able to prosper.

Perhaps I'm making a big fuss about nothing, but this question has been in the back of my mind for a while and there really does seem to have been a change.

Lightning strikes twice - more Orthotrichum pumilum near Newport

A few hours tetrad-bashing on Saturday afternoon knocked of another 2.5 VC35 tetrads in the Llanmartin/Llandevaud/Kemmys Graig area east of Newport.  Although this is mundane lowland Monmouthshire/Newport, ST39V included the fringes of Wentwood and a few acidophiles such as Diplophyllum albicans and Rhytidiadelphus loreus.  Highlights were:

Orthotrichum pumilum in a hedge by Llanmartin Church, a couple of km from last year's colony and surely indicative of a 'mother load' of this species somewhere in SE Wales.
Gyroweisia tenuis on the mortar of Llanmartin Church.
Cirriphyllum piliferum in Llanmartin Churchyard (rare in the Newport area).
Plagiochila asplenioides in the gutter of Llandevaud Church (rare in the Newport area).
Funaria hygrometrica on forestry tracks at Kemmys Graig (I think this species is declining significantly).

So, not an outstanding day (Orthotrichum notwithstanding), but good to get another couple of squares finished.

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.

 

 

What were the chances of that!

On our way back from Hay-on-Wye yesterday, we happened to stop for a cup of tea at the lay-by in the Beacons not far from where Graham reported checking up on the Plagiopus last December. So as I had a pin in my map and I remembered a reference to a Holly, while the others were sipping their tea, I 'shot' up the slope to the only crag I could see that had a Holly tree growing out of it. Sure enough there was plenty Plagiopus doing it's thing nicely, plus good quantities of the lovely green lichen Graham had also posted a photo of. So I grabbed a quick snap, before slipping quickly back down the hill before I got the call saying 'where are you?'  Perhaps it wasn't the greatest coincidence in the world, but I was quite surprised to discover that I'd grabbed a photo of the exact same patch of Solorina saccata as shot (much better) by Graham:

Graham's photo 

and my phone grab shot

plus the Plagiopus of course

Cyprus samples

Couldn't resist bringing back a few holiday bryos last month, a good selection of British species which I managed to identify, including:

Lots of Sphaerocarpos michelii, Aloina ambigua plus and odd glaucous bobbly thing at Kolossi Castle, which if any one has a suggestion I'd be interested to hear?

Southbya nigrella, Fossombronia caespitiformis & Microbryum davallianum (Avakas Gorge). The flora was stunning, but the bryophytes were an unexpected bonus.

Tylorstown & Llanwonno

A belated post from an outing on 23 March -

My first full day of bryophyte recording in I don't know how long took me to ST09, one of the more under-recorded hectads in Rhondda Cynon Taf with only 4 of the 25 constituent tetrads having 60+ bryo species recorded.

I started at Tylorstown Tip (aka Old Smokey), which despite being such a prominent Rhondda landmark didn't appear to have any previous bryophyte records.

The north side of the tip (split between ST09C and ST09H) produced a list of 63 species, the best of those on the colliery spoil being Barbilophozia floerkei, Ptilidium ciliare, Riccardia multifida, Climacium dendroides and Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. The scattered young larches proved good for epiphytes including a single weft of Sanionia uncinata (photo below) and a large(ish) cushion of Colura calyptrifolia in an exposed location near the top of the tip (at 430m, with just some scattered young spruce for shelter).

After lunch I moved on to the southern end of the Llanwonno forestry plantation, where ST09G was a blank canvas as far as bryophyte recording goes. Rotting conifer logs among the Sitka held plenty of Nowellia curvifolia, Calypogeia muelleriana was found on a ditchside, Colura was recorded on birch and rowan and Ulota calvescens on willow (but no Daltonia was forthcoming despite actively searching for it). A puzzling Metzgeria with very narrow thalli was also found on willow (see photo below - note the Frullania which gives a sense of scale). This might be the male shoots of M. furcata mentioned in Paton but if anyone has any other ideas please let me know.

All in all it was a productive day but lacking anything to live long in the memory. 103 species were recorded, spread across four tetrads, with 135 new tetrad records being made.

Holiday hepatics

I made a 5 day visit to Andalucía and Extremadura (SW Spain) last week, and photographed a few bryophytes as well as looking at birds, flowers, butterflies etc.  The weather was rather damp, but that meant liverworts were looking great.  I didn't make any real effort to look at bryophytes, let alone collecting them, but it was great to see some rare British species in great abundance.  These included Bartramia stricta (photo), Cheilothela chloropus, Riccia nigrella (photo) and Targionia hypophylla (photo).  I only found Sphaerocarpos sp. (photo) once.

 Three liverworts that are absent from Britain were especially interesting: Riccia bicarinata (photo), R. lamellosa (photo) and the wonderful Oxymitra incrassata (photo).