I was off work last Thursday - and where better to spend a warm early spring day than in limestone woodland. I spent half of the day walking the woods around Dinas Powys, with one of the aims being to improve on the miserly total of 31 bryo taxa recorded in ST17L. Around 60 taxa were recorded on the walk, with the solid if unspectacular cast including
Riccardia chamaedrys,
Orthodontium lineare,
Dialytricha mucronata (on concrete by the Cadoxton River),
Cirriphyllum crassinervium and
Lejeunea lamacerina. The highlight was an unexpected limestone crag at ST147723, which added
Mnium stellare,
Porella platyphylla,
Eucladium verticillatum and
Tortella tortuosa, among others.
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| Mnium stellare |
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| In places it was hard to avoid treading on Herb Paris |
Earlier in the day I called at the Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve to try and add a few species for ST17X (which had a reasonable list of grots but hardly anything else). Around 10 taxa were added, taking the total for this tetrad into the 40s, including
Fissidens incurvus,
Orthotrichum lyellii and a nice fruiting patch of
Bryum radiculosum on a wall.
Nice, if you looking for more limestone have you tried the Cwm Gorge just upstream of the Salmon Leap (ST 14007 72939) ?. Ive only walked through quickly once quite recently, cant believe I hadnt been there before as its so close to me. ps there is a fun rope sing across the river for the kids (or adults !) here: ST 15115 72250
ReplyDeleteGood work George...the swing sounds a must Gareth��
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