It was the first river-side recording I've done this season, so it felt very much like catching up with old friends which I hadn't seen since last winter - Syntrichia latifolia, Homalia trichomanoides, Plagiomnium rostratum and Leskea polycarpa. I almost drew a blank on the latter species, but a single sycamore was completely plastered in it.
Although in character the habitats felt very much like those by the Taff, there were a couple of species missing which I encountered regularly there - Cinclidotus fontinaloides and Mnium marginatum (despite some silty bays which looked perfect for the latter species). In their place was plenty of Aneura pinguis, which I've not seen by the Taff. It will be interesting to see if this pattern is continued as I work further upstream on the Rhymney.
The field alongside the river had a grassy mound with some soil gaps - these held Phascum cuspidatum and Tortula modica.
Glad you're now finding time to get out and about George and I'm looking forward to an end of year sync. If you sync with Dave before then, you should receive quite a few new records as I sent him a file just last week.
ReplyDeleteI share your enthusiasm for riparian bryos George, and it's always nice to find Leskea.
ReplyDeleteYes it's been nice to start getting out a bit more often. Not as much as I'd like, but I'm sure that goes for all of us.
ReplyDeleteI had 30 mins to spare before a meeting at Parc Slip on Thursday and recorded 26 species in young conifer woodland over mine spoil in the NE of the site, including Colura on willow. This tetrad (SS88X) had only 1 previous bryo record.
Barry - I synced with Dave last week too, but still have a backlog of records to catch up with...