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Wednesday 7 September 2016

Bryos by night

Paul Parsons and I trapped at Merthyr Mawr last night in the hope of Portland Moth. We failed on that score (probably a little late now) but my trap was cited in a large dune slack, which gave me the chance to have a torchlit poke about for bryos while I was waiting for the moths to arrive.

I found three tiny plants of Petalophyllum in the slack which Karen Wilkinson had mentioned was the best place to find this species, but more interesting perhaps was some Riccia in a different slack (where I cited the trap). I'm pretty sure this is R. cavernosa but am posting photos here as I've not seen this species before and I don't think it's been recorded from Merthyr Mawr. The plants were scrappy and looked much older than the babies which Barry found at Kenfig.

 


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4 comments:

  1. Barry Stewart8 September 2016 at 06:52

    Great effort George, there can't be too many people who have found Petalophyllum by torchlight before! Well done with the Riccia too - although it does not look as perforate as the Kenfig material and appears strikingly pale (possibly a flash effect) I'm sure that's what it probably is. I'm due to visit MM soon so will see if I can find some better developed material. Good to know the Petalwort is now showing.

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  2. GMT8 September 2016 at 09:48

    Thanks Barry, I think the pale colour is just due to the unnatural torch / camera flash lighting. I'll email you some grid refs.

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  3. Charles Hipkin8 September 2016 at 22:11

    There aren't too many people who have found Petalophyllum at all, let alone at night. I remember spending what seemed to be hours on my hands and knees before finding it in broad daylight. Remarkable effort George

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  4. GMT8 September 2016 at 23:04

    Thanks for the kind words Charles but I bet with a good torch it's not much harder to find at night than in the day. And Karen had told me where to look.

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