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Sunday 11 September 2016

Possible Amblyodon at Kenfig NNR

Slack south of Jeff's Mistake Slack
Unfortunately the capsules of the freely fruiting species shown below had all disintegrated, leaving just patches of very long, thin setae. The habitat it was growing in was the steeply cut edges of the scraped slack in the north of the reserve with the rather unwieldy name 'Slack south of Jeff's Mistake Slack', which in the photograph is the sharp transition between the green dry-dune vegetation in the foreground and the yellowy flooded slack vegetation (SS78438286). My first thought when I saw it, was that it looked a bit like Pohlia melanodon, but the setae were far too long. Closer inspection at home made me think that in might in fact be Amblyodon. Direct associates included Pellia endiviifola, Didymodon tophaceus, Bryum pseudotriquetrum, Calliergonella cuspidata, Aneura pinguis and Riccardia chamedryfolia. I've packaged my specimen, but any comments based on the images would be welcome. Hopefully in time I'll find some plants with intact capsules to make a more confident id.
A couple more reference images below that show the extremely broad-based costa and lax cell structure.
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4 comments:

  1. GMT12 September 2016 at 17:22

    Ooh it certainly looks promising doesn't it - I look forward to hearing Sam's verdict.

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  2. Barry Stewart12 September 2016 at 22:35

    It certainly compares very well with the excellent reference photos on the Swiss Bryophyte website.

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  3. sambbryo13 September 2016 at 13:48

    It's definitely Amblyodon - well spotted. Yours appears to be a new locality. The four localities where I saw it during my 2012 surveys of Kenfig were:
    3 plants on low mound in slack SS7851382920
    5x5cm patch with 10 old sporophytes on edge of hummock SS7866283021
    2x2cm patch on hummock in slack SS7866483029
    7 scattered colonies SS78938123 to SS78978123 and to SS78958125

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  4. Barry Stewart14 September 2016 at 06:55

    Thanks Sam. Yes this is definitely a new colony, though not too Far East of the ones you found in the north of the reserve. There were scattered patches along a 2m length of the densely vegetated, small bank of the southern edge of the scraped slack, which was overtopped by grasses and herbs. I'm not sure when it was scraped yet, but must be one of the older scrapes.

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