Sam mentioned yesterday that he last saw Ptilidium pulcherrimum in Monmouthshire in St. Mary's Vale on edge of Abergavenny in 2001-ish. It was on one of the thousands of oak trees in the woodland there, so re-finding it if it still grows there seemed a bit of a challenge. I happened to have car today so nipped up there at lunch time as I thought that even if I couldn't find the Ptilidium I could at least pay my respects to the Bazzania trilobata that grows there. After half hour of searching I came to a small clearing with a fairly large oak tree and there on the lower horizontal branch were some orangey patches of Ptilidium (sorry about poor photos - taken on phone). It looks like most of the moss and some Ptilidium has fallen off the tree fairly recently.
I had a look around the tree tops to see if there was any Usnea articulata - no joy, but a couple of tufts of Usnea florida were nice to see this far east.
Back down the slope examining old stumps for some of the scarcer Dicranum species - again no luck, just Orthodontium lineare. Lots of Bazzania though and looking very healthy.
Very productive Graham, you need to get use of the car more often.
ReplyDeleteJob done!
ReplyDeleteI said it was impossible to refind - well done and thank you!
ReplyDeleteI'll try and work out exact grid ref. Cheers
ReplyDelete