Following the clearance of blanketing thickets of Rhododendron in parts of Cwmdulais a few years back, I have made a few casual records of what has been recolonising. The only lower plants (which currently provide the bulk of the ground cover) noted in a small sampling area during a casual Christmas Eve stroll, were (in
decreasing levels of abundance)
Campylopus introflexus, Cladonia chlorophaea
agg.
, Dicranella heteromalla, Hypnum cupressiforme var.
cupressiforme, Polytrichum juniperinum, Cladonia
coniocraea and
Dicranum scoparium. Clearly there is more diversity than this in the valley (see my previous post
HERE on this subject), but to date recolonisation of cleared Rhododendron in the valley has been by a rather limited suite of species. Needless to say the Rhododendron is showing good signs of recovery!
A small, mildly basic flush at SN61730358
did provide a point of interest amongst this predominantly acid tolerant vegetation,
with species noted (again in decreasing levels of abundance) including
Dicranella
varia, Riccardia chamedryfolia, Aneura pinguis, Cratoneuron
filicinum, Didymodon fallax, Philonotis Fontana, Didymodon tophaceus, Didymodon
insulanus, Pellia endiviifolia, Pohlia wahlenbergii var
. wahlenbergii, Bryum
pseudotriquetrum &
Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum. I'm not sure if this vegetation comprises recent colonists or was hiding beneath the Rhodendrons prior to clearance?
No comments:
Post a Comment