Pylaisia polyantha

Highlight of today's lunchtime walk was a 30x15cm patch of Pylaisia polyantha on a horizontal Hazel on the edge of Redding's Inclosure.  This is another part of my target tetrad SO51J, with different habitats to those I have looked at elsewhere in the square.  As a result, additions included conifer plantation specialists such as Plagiothecium curvifolium (plentiful and fruiting), Hypnum jutlandicum, Pohlia wahlenbergii (on a track) and potential Sematophyllum substrumulosum and Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens (both to check).

NBN map of Pylaisia (yellow squares) with new site arrowed

Pylaisia is an eastern moss in Wales, with most colonies in Monmouthshire hedgerows where it tends to occupy a niche in the upper part of trimmed hedges, just below the level smashed by flailing each year.  I have found it once in Glamorgan and three times in the Llandeilo area of Carmarthenshire, and I suspect it should be present in George's neck of the woods.  It is most easily spotted in late winter because of its copious straight fruits, although it is easy to ignore as Homalothecium sericeum unless you have it in mind.

The photo is of a Monmouthshire hedgerow colony, not today's one (because I didn't have a camera with me).