Thursday 14 September 2017
More Splachnum
Karen Wilkinson's sharp eyes spotted a few tufts of moss on an old cow pat on Fairwood Common, Gower today (Grid ref SS 5705 9328). It looked good for Splachnum sphaericum in the field and also fits well with this species microscopically, having only very obscurely toothed leaf margins and relatively short cells near the leaf apex. I worry a little about the similarity to a young Bryum sp., but perhaps this is unlikely on dung.
Assuming the ID is correct this will be the 3rd Glamorgan record, all of which have been made within the last 3 years.
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It does look like sphaericum, although I have wondered about juvenile Bryum or even Atrichum with similar material before
ReplyDeleteThat's a great (new) record for Gower. I guess Funaria and Entosthodon can be added to the list of lookaikes - could these grow on dung?
ReplyDeleteI have seen similar material on dung in past which I haven't been confident enough to name and ignored in the hope of seeing better grown plants nearby (but never found). All (which is only a few records) the sphaericum I have been confident to name has been well-grown, with very broad leaves. Might be worth growing specimen on to see how leaves develop (stuff I grew on last year which I mentioned in earlier blog post I just sat on some wetted kitchen towel in a shallow dish with rainwater). I have some memories of collecting some material on dung near Pal y Cwrt years ago which looked a bit like sphaericum in field, but which Sam took home to take a closer look at and which turned out to be Tetraplodon - young plants? - but there was also well grown Tetraplodon on quarry spoil nearby.
ReplyDeleteI have seen quite a few species of bryo growing on dung over the years - I don't think I have been very good at making notes of which species though, but can recall things like Campylopus and Cephaloziella.
Thanks for the comments everyone. I think I should probably add this one to the 'record pending' category. A shame I didn't take a larger sample for incubation...the sample I have is very small and now dried out, without much substrate, so probably little chance of resurrecting this one.
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