Home tetrad

Remnant areas of coal spoil at Melin Mynach / Toyoda factory

I’ve still not done any square-bashing this year, though I’ve made a few short revisits to sites close to home, which on Saturday included a 40 minute session at a remnant fragment of a former coal spoil tip by the Toyoda factory (SS595998), about 1km from the house. A total of 69 taxa have so far been recorded at the site, 41 occurring directly on spoil, though my visits here have always been casual, so undoubtedly there's more to discover. The assemblage in the area I looked at on Saturday included locally frequent Didymodon fallax, Fissidens adianthoides and Weissia brachycarpa var. obliqua (photos below), suggestive that the spoil there is mildly basic, though other calcicoles generally occurred at lower frequencies. Surprisingly this short visit added five more species to my home tetrad taking the total to 127.