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Thursday 29 December 2016

End of year square-bash at Rhosaman

An afternoon square-bash in SN71G took the square total from 5 to 83. I spent most time searching an area of colliery spoil which produced 63 species directly on spoil; nothing exciting, those of general interest included Aneura pinguis, Archidium alternifolium, Aulacomnium palustre (unusually plants were scattered over a steep dry bank with a broken sward), Calliergonella lindbergii, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Racomitrium ericoides, R. fasciculare, R. lanuginosum, Riccardia multifida, Sciuro-hypnum plumosum (surprisingly frequent on shaley ground). Despite a decent return I was disappointed not to find any Ptilidium, nor any Weissia or Fossombronia spp. to name but a few I was anticipating.  I didn’t have time to walk the wooded banks of the Aman, which could well have taken the square total over 100 ... another day perhaps!  I did manage to take a very quick look in the river by the footbridge, where Hygrohypnum ochraceum covered the larger rocks along with a little Marchantia polymorpha subsp. polymorpha. This may have been my last bryophyte outing in what’s been another very enjoyable year of recording. Best wishes to all for the year ahead...
PS. If anyone can put a name to the brown lichen I’d be interested to know.
 Racomitrium ericoides-Cladonia portentosa spoil community
  Sciuro-hypnum plumosum 
  Aulacomnium palustre
  Lophozia ventricosa 
  unidentified lichen
 Hygrohypnum ochraceum
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6 comments:

  1. pabs30 December 2016 at 21:18

    Hi Barry, Some parts of your lichen reminds me of Cetraria aculeata. Have you considered this species? Paul

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  2. Barry Stewart31 December 2016 at 09:02

    Thanks Paul. That looks a good fit from images online. I'll check my sample against the characters in Dobson later...

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  3. Barry Stewart31 December 2016 at 10:35

    My sample checks revealed the presence a few shoots of Ptilidium, Sphagnum denticulatum and Cephaloziella divaricata taking SN71G total on to 86

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  4. GMT31 December 2016 at 12:56

    Great work Barry.

    I've not had chance to get out in South Wales for a while. I managed a few new species in Cornwall over Christmas including Rhabdoweisia fugax at Rocky Valley (a bit of a bryo hotspot which also holds a population of Dumortiera, which I failed to find - David Holyoak reckoned it might be submerged at this time of year so I'll try again when we're down there in the spring).

    With best wishes to all for some good mossing in 2017.

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  5. Charles Hipkin31 December 2016 at 21:14

    Excellent Barry, another NPT square in credit.

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  6. Neil Sanderson13 October 2017 at 22:53

    The lichen is Leptogium palmatum, a very good record and new to the area. Neil Sanderson

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