I’ve taken another look at the Kilvey sample and it's left me more baffled than I was after my hurried examination last night. Some bract tubes are definitely lobed and lack thickened cells towards the margins (as in integerrima), though some look perfectly good for calyculata! It’s not difficult to
find 2-celled leaf lobe apices (rare in calyculata) and leaves that are divided
>½ way (both good integerrima features). The largely calcifuge associate list also points to integerrima rather than calyculata, but as both are known occur on mine spoil, it's probably not worth putting any weight on this. I'm seriously wondering if both species might be present? I’ll send my samples on to Sam for expert opinion and will be
keeping my fingers crossed. The image below is high resolution, which if you on to open full size and then save it, you can open it in your normal image browser and zoom in much more usefully than is possible in blogger.
It certainly looks like one/both of those extremely rare Cephaloziella. I look forward to seeing a specimen to work out whether you've got the very rare Section 42 C calyculata or the even rarer New for Wales C integerrima!!
ReplyDeleteI've just posted my specimens (I've provided a sample packet with collection details, but I've wrapped them in tissue a small sample box to keep them clean and intact - keep the specimen if it turns out to be anything worth keeping) plus a small number of other samples including Porella obtusata, Fissidens curvatus, etc..
ReplyDeleteI spent 40+ minutes carefully checking the Cephaloziella and have concluded that it is a mix of C calyculata and C stellulifera. There are a good number of unlobed bract tubes that can only be C calyculata, plus a few slightly lobes ones that I think fit within the variation of that species. The European liverwort key also mentions the leaves of C integerrima being more deeply lobed, and your specimen matches C calyculata with very shallowly divided lobes.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd to feel slightly disappointed about finding something as rare as C calyculata (recorded from <20 sites in Britain ever) but C integerrima would have been mega!
Yes I must confess to feeling similar disappointment, but I'm grateful to have a definitive answer thanks. Still a useful record all the same from a very brief visit (30 mins) to a site worthy of much more scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent record nonetheless Barry!
ReplyDelete