Three liverworts that are absent from Britain were especially interesting: Riccia bicarinata (photo), R. lamellosa (photo) and the wonderful Oxymitra incrassata (photo).
Sunday 1 April 2018
Holiday hepatics
I made a 5 day visit to Andalucía and Extremadura (SW Spain) last week, and photographed a few bryophytes as well as looking at birds, flowers, butterflies etc. The weather was rather damp, but that meant liverworts were looking great. I didn't make any real effort to look at bryophytes, let alone collecting them, but it was great to see some rare British species in great abundance. These included Bartramia stricta (photo), Cheilothela chloropus, Riccia nigrella (photo) and Targionia hypophylla (photo). I only found Sphaerocarpos sp. (photo) once.
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Those thallose liverworts look seriously exotic.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to see some Sphaerocarpos (among other things) when I go to the Scillies next week.
I must go to southern Europe during the rainy season and see some of these for myself.
ReplyDeleteThat's great Sam. While there is lots of information on birds and flowers etc. in the various 'what to look for' guides to other countries, bryophytes are never mentioned. I think occasional posts like this on any notable bryophytes we saw on holiday, would be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteDuring a very recent trip to Cyprus i was quite surprised by the local abundance of bryos, including a Sphaerocarpos, a sample of which I brought back and id'd as michelii.
ReplyDeletePS lovely sequence of Ricciaceae - i presume Oxymitra belongs to this family too.
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