Our South Wales colonies are on limestone, whereas this one covers many square metres of igneous rock at Coed Tremadog. I visited this outstanding lichen site, near Porthmadog, yesterday morning en route to a site visit in snowy Eryri. Other highlights included Plagiochila britannica, P. bifaria and some potential Radula lindenbergiana. Chris Forster Brown has found Leptodon smithii and Anomodon viticulosus there, and I'm sure that many more notable species would be found if several days were spent exploring, as the rock is very base-rich in places.
There's a distinctly lowland, south-eastern feel to the flora, with species such as Eurhynchium pumilum and Neckera complanata more frequent than in most of Eryri. The wonderful pink fungus Phlebia radiata appears from the NBN Gateway map to be similarly south-eastern in Britain, and no other Meirionydd records are shown.
Recording in a ravine later in the morning produced new populations of Drepanolejeunea and Harpalejeunea on a slender Ash in a small waterfall mist zone, both within a SSSI with a diverse oceanic flora but no previous records of these hyperoceanic liverworts. It is great that even well-worked Eryri can produce surprises.
Recording in Eryri is enhanced by the wonderful landscape: snow-covered Moel Hebog was especially prominent in the background yesterday.
Drepanolejeunea and Harpalejeunea on the same tree - the stuff of dreams. Maybe if we continue to have hyperoceanic winters like this one we'll be seeing them in Glyn Neath before long.
ReplyDeleteLovely image of the pink form of Phlebia radiata.
Some tantalising species in an area I'll definitely be visiting again and again.
ReplyDeleteI had an eruption of Wrinkled Crust on a young Swedish Whitebeam that died in the garden, which I had left as standing dead wood - an oddly beautiful fungus. See here http://goweros.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/wrinkled-crust.html