Forestry road south of Cwmparc RCT
A fairly steep and impressively engineered forestry road took us from the A4061 south of Cwmparc up to Mynydd Maendy allowing us to add some new species to the list for SS99M. On the way up we recorded some typical forestry road species and noted a small amount of Didymodon luridus on the stonework of the drainage channel that runs the length of the road. Above this the landscape gives way to upland grazing pasture which didn't look very promising, but we headed for a small sandstone outcrop in the Nant Ian valley above Ton Pentre. The flora on the outcrop was not particularly interesting but included some Pohlia elongata in a wet shaded crevice in the crumbling rock face. However, below the outcrop in wet, stony peat there was an interesting liverwort flora which consisted of Diplophyllum albicans, Gymnocolea inflata, Marsupella emarginata and a brownish-green Lophozia which didn't look like ventricosa.
Lophozia sudetica in Nant Ian valley
Although we couldn't find any gemmae, several features indicate Lophozia sudetica. Firstly, the colour and secondly, the leaves have very shallow notches - compare with L. ventricosa in photograph below. Thirdly the mean leaf cell size (18.75 x 23.75 microns), and the range of sizes recorded (22 measurements), are well within the range reported for L. sudetica and smaller than those reported for L. ventricosa.
Lophozia ventricosa
This brings the tally for SS99M to a respectable 80.
That certainly looks to be L sudetica - sparsely scattered through upland South Wales
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam, I'm fairly confident. Barry's record from the Ogwr Valley is the next tetrad and I think that diligent searching will turn it up in similar habitats in neighbouring tetrads.
ReplyDeleteIt's always great to see context images like this as well as images of the species themselves. Very nice find by the way and good to see you're eating into RCT tetrads.
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