Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Platygyrium repens fruiting
A lunchtime wander from the NRW Monmouth office up the Wye Valley to Priory Grove confirmed how biogeographically different this part of Wales is from the areas of Carmarthenshire I have been exploring over recent years. Lane banks held Eurhynchium schleichei, which has only one known Carms site, and the commonest Orthotrichum was O. stramineum. Highlight was several patches of Platygyrium repens on horizontal Hazel branches, looking a lot like Hypnum but a bit more bronzy and with abundant branchlets. To my amazement, one of the patches sported 4 nearly ripe sporophytes: the first time I have seen them and a very rare occurrence. There are lots of bits of this wood and the adjacent Fiddlers Elbow SSSI that need a good search, so lunchtime walks could be very interesting over the next few months (both for bryophytes and microlepidoptera).
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Very nice, I've never seen Platgyrium, nor has it been on my radar - until now. I collected some putative O. schleicheri yesterday at Oxwich Wood which I'll post at some point.
ReplyDeletePS. Sounds like you have some new hunting grounds, which must be exciting.
ReplyDeleteBiogeographically it sounds different even from Cardiff - I don't see O. stramineum very often (though I probably overlook it sometimes). As Barry says, it's good to be made aware of Platygyrium.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Sam. It makes you wonder whether the colonisation of Britain by Platygyrium has actually been the result of natural range expansion.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Platygyrium is a spreading 'native' rather than an alien. Its initial appearance in Oxfordshire is a bit odd, but may be climatic. It seems to be most abundant in the southern Marches, which is rather an unusual pattern.
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