After several hints that Ulota taxonomy was about to change (is the information that Ulota crispa comprises three species a 'spoiler' or a cause for concern?!), British bryologists now have no excuse to bury their heads in the sand. Tom Blockeel has published an excellent overview of Ulota in the last Field Bryology, complete with a key and photos of endostome and exostome teeth. There are only a few Welsh Vice-counties listed for each segregate species, with Ulota intermedia in VC41 a bit of a surprise, so there's a lot to be found. With this in mind I have collected a few Ulota this summer, including U. crispa and U. crispula on willows at 300m altitude near Llyn Ogwen in Snowdonia (U. crispa photo above; I photographed the dull species); U. crispa on willows near Capel Curig; U. crispa on a lowland Hawthorn at Llangua in Monmouthshire; U. crispula on Hazel at 150m altitude at Gwernogle in Carmarthenshire; and U. intermedia on Lundy.
Now is the perfect time to look for U. crispula and U. intermedia, because both seem to have old/post-ripe capsules, whereas U. crispa is still unripe/ripe with calyptrae.
I added Ulota crispula to the VC35 list near Ebbw Vale on Sunday - it's all to play for!
ReplyDeleteAlways up for a challenge,so I'll give it a whirl...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteI collected Ulota crispula from Morfa Ystradowen (VC41) yesterday but haven't yet found Ulota crispa ss in Glamorgan.
ReplyDeleteSam, I've managed U. crispula and U. crispa from VC46, the former apparently being the commonest species of the genus in many lowland sites but no luck so far with U. intermedia but I shall keep looking of course. Other news from Ceredigion: I refound a couple of liverworts on Cors Caron: Cepahlozia macrostachya var. spinigera just on one of the raised bogs and Calypogeia neesiana on a peat cutting in what could well be the same place as Jean Paton found it in 1970. There are several other elderly records I'm currently trying to refind on the very extensive site.... Tom
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