Steel works spoil

Last week I took a quick look at a zinc spoil tip in the Port Talbot works (SS768872). Unfortunately I wasn’t permitted to go onto the tip itself, so was restricted to searching around just one small area alongside the road. There was no sign of the hoped for Scopelophila, nor any other metallophytes, and the list of species recorded (see below) was fairly mundane and indiacted the section I looked at [made up of powdery black dust] was not contaminated. There are plenty other tips of various types scattered throughout the works, so it seems feasible that a Scopelophila colony could still be awaiting discovery. Search opportunities are likely to be limited, but I’ll keep on trying whenever a chance presents itself.

Spoil tip edge species in decreasing level of abundance:
Ceratodon purpureus
Barbula convoluta var. convoluta
Barbula convoluta var. sardoa
Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum
Didymodon fallax
Tortula muralis
Drepanocladus aduncus
Brachythecium albicans
Didymodon tophaceus
Amblystegium serpens var. serpens
Cratoneuron filicinum
Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis

Funaria hygrometrica