nearest i'll get to Lapland this Xmas

Just downloaded six months worth of photos from my phone and came across this rather bad pic that I had forgotten about.  Taken during family walk around the Carmarthen Fans last summer - at one point the footpath goes alongside a crag with a lovely array of arctic alpine plants and almost brushing your face are a few patches of this Amphidium.

Dinas Powys

On Saturday I spent a morning in Dinas Powys, specifically in tetrad ST17K - the last remaining tetrad in ST17 with no bryophyte records. It proved more interesting than expected, with a fair bit of woodland in the north and some attractive limestone outcrops.

Most of the outcrops were smothered in Thamnobryum and Anomodon, but there was a small patch of Conocephalum salebrosum in one area. The best outcrop (ST149719) held Taxiphyllum wissgrillii and a fair bit of Marchesinia mackaii (the first time I've seen it in the Dinas Powys woodlands, and new for ST17). It was growing near an impressive lichen, which Sam has identified as Dermatocarpon miniatum (thanks Sam).

I finished the outing with a quick walk around Dinas Powys Common, which added some open ground species including Microbryum davellianum (spores checked) on a patch of compacted soil. I haven't entered the records yet, but the tetrad list should be up to around 60 species.

Declining acidophiles

Just before Christmas I spotted three uncommon mosses at Dingestow: Plagiothecium latebricola was new for the area (bryophyte number 242), Bryum moravicum was the 2nd Dingestow record and the first in VC35 since 2008, and Aulacomnium androgynum used to be frequent at Dingestow in 1999/2000 but was last seen in VC35 in 2009.  The Plagiothecium is remarkably small and easily ignored/overlooked, but formed a dense cover over ca. 30 square cm of a huge log.

Crofty update

male Fossombronia incurva

I spent about an hour on Christmas Eve exploring the abandoned Crofty building plot and recorded Cephaloziella integerrima on a total 12 of the post hole tumps, a few small patches on some of the adjacent banks, plus some reasonable patches on the abandoned footings themselves. The list of direct associates (i.e species within 10cm) below included Fossombronia incurva, this being just the second county record.

female plants of Fossombronia incurva with Ephemerum minutissimum

Direct associates of Cephaloziella integerrima:

Achillea millefolium

Agrostis capillaris

Aira praecox

Anthoxanthum odoratum

Archidium alternifolium

Bellis perennis

Brachytheciastrum velutinum

Brachythecium mildeanum
Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens

Bryum dichotomum

Bryum pallens

Calliergonella cuspidata

Carex flacca

Centaurium erythraea

Cephaloziella divaricata

Ceratodon purpureus

Cladonia fimbriata
Cladonia furcata

Cladonia humilis

Cladonia rangiformis

Cynosurus cristatus

Dactylis glomerata

Dicranella rufescens

Didymodon fallax

Didymodon insulanus

Ephemerum minutissimum

Ephemerum serratum

Festuca ovina

Fossombronia incurva

Holcus lanatus

Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum

Hypochaeris radicata

Leontodon saxatilis

Lotus corniculatus

Luzula campestris

Odontites vernus

Oxyrrhynchium hians

Pilosella officinarum

Plantago coronopus

Pleuridium subulatum
Plantago lanceolata

Prunella vulgaris

Pseudoscleropodium purum

Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus

Tortula truncata

Trifolium dubium

Trifolium repens

Vicia sativa subsp. segetalis

Viola riviniana

Weissia controversa var. controversa

Cephaloziella integerrima in Crofty...

stacked image in natural light of perianths

stacked image in natural light of gemmiferous shoots

stacked image in natural light of older perianths

1' high tump with patches of C. integerrima

1' high post hole tumps with patches of fruiting C. integerrima
another line of tumps behind the bund also hold patches

...well, I think so! A brief stop today to look at some semi-interesting flora growing on a few spoil tumps in the middle of an abandoned building plot revealed a good quantity of a richly fertile Cephaloziella. With angular gemmae, edentate lobed perianth bracts that are connate, I'm pretty confident this must be integerrima, a potential first for Wales. If confirmed I'll need to determine how extensive the population is. I have a feeling building works were stopped ~6 years ago, as the developer did not have planning permission. This is a highly vulnerable population, but best we get the id confirmed first before looking at safeguarding the species at this site. There is no referee listed for this genus in the latest FB, so Sam, I wonder if you can suggest someone who would be willing to examine a voucher, yourself perhaps? [I called in very briefly again the following day and noted integerrima to be present on a few additional tumps, the mounds being the ground excavated for a series of post holes about 10 years ago!].

phone pic of abundant perianths

 

The list of direct associates noted so far includes:

Anthoxanthum odoratum

Archidium alternifolium

Brachytheciastrum velutinum

Bryum dichotomum

Calliergonella cuspidata

Cephaloziella divaricata (photo of female perianth below, male plants also present)

Ceratodon purpureus

Cladonia chlorophaea agg.

Cladonia furcata subsp. furcata

Cladonia cf. ramulosa

Cladonia rangiformis

Cynosurus cristatus

Didymodon fallax

Festuca ovina

Fossombronia sp.

Lotus corniculatus

Pilosella officinarum

Plantago coronopus

Plantago lanceolata

Pleuridium cf. acuminatum

Poa trivialis

Trifolium dubium

Trifolium repens

C. divaricata

another little look at Cefn Bryn

I spent an hour and a half on Cefn Bryn in the rain on Saturday and recorded 53 species in an area of flushed ground to the north of Arthur's Stone.  Kurzia pauciflora was more frequent here than I've seen elsewhere on Gower, typically growing through mounds of Sphagnum papillosum. Amongst eight Sphagnum, tenellum was the only species of any note.

Kurzia pauciflora

I only came across one base-enriched flush, where there were small quantities of Palustriella falcata and Sarmentypnum exannulatum mixed in the short turf, which held frequent Campylium stellatum and Scorpidium cossonii.

Scorpidium cossonii

Grimmia trichophylla & Racomitrium heterostichum were present on several of the rocks in the area, surprisingly this being the first time the latter has been recorded on the Gower peninsula.

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum mid-leaf section

Grimmia trichophylla

Syntrichia virescens

Finally an update on this Syntrichia from Llanishen in February. I have now prepared a nerve section as recommended by Nagy in the comments. This appears to confirm S. virescens new for Glamorgan. Not the best prep or photo - but compared to my usual nerve sectioning abilities I'm pretty chuffed! I'll send a voucher to Tom Blockeel.

 A small Syntrichia growing on the trunk of a street lime caught my eye as I was walking to the woodland south of Llanishen Reservoir for a quick square bash. It looks reasonably convincing for S. virescens, with toothed hairpoints and notched leaf apices, though the length of the basal cells (30-62 microns, averaging 37-45 microns) straddles the ranges given in Smith for differentiating S. virescens and S. montana. It was certainly smaller than typical montana, but as virescens would be new for VC41 I'm being cautious and seeking the opinion of others - thoughts welcome.

Sphagnum russowii in Glamorgan

On 15th September Glamorgan Botany Group paid a visit to Blaenrhondda. As we didn't quite cover as much ground as we'd have liked, a couple of us made a return visit on 4th October. Whilst mainly focusing on the vascular plants, I was drawn to a patch of reddish Sphagna on a north facing Vaccinium dominated slope, near the waterfall on the Nant Melyn stream (SN917016).

This is exactly the sort of habitat where I have seen Sphagnum russowii in Scotland and it had the right jizz. Microscopic examination confirmed it had the lingulate rather than triangular stem leaves, with a mostly plane apex, and 4 rather than 5 branches, which separate it from most other possibilities. (The specimen has also now been confirmed by Tom Blockeel). We saw it in at least two locations on this north facing bank, but there could be more as we subsequently returned our attention back to the crags, so it would be good to do a follow up visit and get a handle on its distribution. 

The benefits of SMNR

 

I have spent the last two days attending a course on Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) with some NRW colleagues at Beechwood House in Newport. This venue is in the middle of a large and varied Victorian park in ST38J - a completely un-recorded tetrad for bryophytes. Searching during two half hour lunchbreaks revealed a remarkable diversity of mosses and liverworts in Beechwood Park: 74 species!  Highlight was a patch of Platygyrium repens on a Sycamore, new for Newport county and the southern half of VC35.  Epipterygium tozeri was also new for Newport, I think, but has 30 widely scattered previous VC35 records.  Other species of vague note included Syntrichia virescens on a Lime trunk, Scleropodium cespitans on tarmac, Gyroweisia tenuis on a damp wall, Didymodon vinealis on drier walls, Microlejeunea ulicina on a Holly (2nd Newport record), Riccia glauca on a bank, and Fissidens crassipes, Rhizomnium punctatum and Pellia epiphylla in the stream valley.  I still haven't explored the nearby St Julian's Park, which looks to have even more diverse habitats.

More Entodon

I helped out with a habitat management work party in Pant St Brides today, in a part of the site I've not spent much time in previously. The limestone turf just above the B4265 looked ideal for Entodon concinnus and it only took a minute or two to locate a fairly large patch of it at SS89627588.

This is a new subsite for this moss at its only South Wales station with recent records, and also a new tetrad. The habitat is very similar to the site found in 2016 (approx. 600m further north), though the aspect is more or less easterly rather than southerly.

The unusual inter-tidal niche of the rare moss Bryum marratii Wilson

Just thought id share a link to the recent paper about Bryum marratii based on study sites in south Wales as useful to have it on the blog too. It was great working with Des, although the 4am start to film a high tide submerging the mosses was a bit of a struggle ! Hopefully there are more collaborations in the pipeline. Im sure you have all seen it but worth adding to the blog anyhow. There is a follow up paper in press and ill share that too. If you need an electronic copy drop my a line at garethf@bgs.ac.uk

Link to Journal of Bryology

Research Gate 

You Tube Video 

Kerbstone query

One query from last week's Vale outing was this small, spidery-looking acrocarp found on a shaded roadside kerbstone near Llysworney. Longest leaves are 1.5mm long. It was probably growing on a thin layer of soil, so Didymodon umbrosus might be a possibility - but would this have such incrassate cells? Selection of microscope pics below; any thoughts welcome.