During an unplanned morning outing last Sunday, I ended up on the north-facing sandstone crags at the northern edge of Hirwaun Common, primarily in an attempt to add to the paltry total of 13 taxa for SN90H. As it happened I was slow getting out of Cwar Canwyllyr [Chandelier Quarry] within SN90G, which already had a respectable total of 111, although I was able to add an additional 20 spp. including some nice patches of Bartramia pomiformis, one of my favourite mosses.
Eventually, I did manage just short of an hour in the target square and managed to take the totals up to a not very impressive 65. The only highlights of any note on these dry acid slopes, with very few outcrops in the section I walked, were a few small that supported healthy patches of bryophyte vegetation. These included a few species of local interest such as
Cynodontium bruntonii,
Barbilophozia floerkei and
Ptilidium ciliare.
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| isolated small crag supporting the species shown below |
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| Ptilidium ciliare |
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| Barbilophozia floerkei |
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| Cynodontium bruntonii |
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| rather mudane, rank Molinia-Eriophorum vaginatum on top of the hill |
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attractive, but very species-poor dry heath with co-doinant
Vaccinium myrtillus -Pleurozium schreberi slopes |
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| view to west, looking across to the more interesting Craig y Llyn |
Well it's great that you managed to take that tetrad above 60 species anyway, even if it wasn't the most bryologically exciting bit of the South Wales uplands.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the Bartramia!
It's interesting how much Barbilophozia floerkii we seem to be turning up which previously had very few records in Glamorgan.
ReplyDelete