Tuesday 4 April 2017

A walk in the woods

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.
Mnium stellare
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.

2 comments:

  1. 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

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  2. Good work George...the swing sounds a must Gareth��

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