Saturday 20 December 2014

Garnswllt

Hopefully today's efforts will have taken both SN60E and SN60J comfortably over the 60 species mark, but I still have quite a bit of material to look at from this site before entering the data. The main highlight was the discovery of a huge colony of Jubula hutchinsiae which extended downstream from the waterfall at SN61960856, where there was a 3m high x 8m wide wall of loose and dripping rock covered in the stuff, but it was also frequent to at least 60m downstream, at which point I headed away from the stream. Saccogyna viticulosa was abundant on a large, nearby rock face that was drier and Thamnobryum alopecurum was noted fruiting freely in patches.

I also managed to have a quick look at the riverbank of the Loughor and found some non-fruiting Orthotrichum which fits rivulare based on cell size. It was growing only 0.5m above the water level on a few small Salix trunks along with Leskea polycarpa fruiting O. diaphanum and a little blackened O. affine. Given it was not in fruit, any thoughts on this welcome [There is some fruiting material in one of my samples so happy with this now].
On the vascular plant front, this 50m hedge was stuffed full of Ruscus. The owner said it had been there for the 37 years he'd lived there, so probably introduced with the Holly as hedging well before this.

9 comments:

  1. That looks a fantastic waterfall Barry. You must have been well chuffed with the Jubula.

    I'll leave someone more experienced to comment on the Orthotrichum!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent, so that's the first record of rivulare for Glamorgan then.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks George. I recorded O. rivulare for the first time back in March at Glyn-neath, so good to find it on another river in the county. O. sprucei would be nice now. The totals for SN60E & SN60J are now on 94 & 93 respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aha, I hadn't realised that...lucky mine from the Ely was sprucei then - at the time I thought either species would be new for VC41.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't remember whether O rivulare has gone to Tom Blockeel yet. Please send it if not.
    More importantly, please send a voucher of Jubula to me as it is not yet officially listed for VC41. Although there is a precedent for a photo voucher (Petalophyllum) I do not want to make an exception for this one. Please can either you or Charles send me a bit of it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Charles should send a voucher preferably as his was first

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hollywort, very seasonal! Great record Barry, now 2 sites in VC41 discovered in a matter of 3 months. Perhaps we should send specimens from both the Glyn Neath and Garnswllt sites to Sam.
    And in case I forget, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you mossy people. Here's hoping for Jamesoniella autumnalis in NPT in 2015.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jamesoniella is quite likely - keep checking those logs. Anastrophyllum hellerianum too. I only need one Jubula voucher, and not fussed who sends it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks to Charles for the Jubula voucher. Very nice! Happy Christmas too.

    ReplyDelete