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.
Glad you got something out of it! I am going on the one at Parc Slip next week, I shall try and make it as worthwhile! Karen
ReplyDeleteSome lovely records there Sam. Do you have grid refs for the Pla.rep. & Syn.vir.? Will def call in there when the opportunity arises - I presume there's public access?
ReplyDeleteNo Grid Refs I'm afraid. Both were by the main path that runs up through the middle of the park. The photos show the Platygyrium tree, which is a youngish Sycamore, and the Syntrichia was at the base of one of the mature Limes near the centre of the park (rather than the ones above the house).
ReplyDeletePlatygerium looks as if it is very slowly edging its way westwards. How long before it turns up in Glamorgan I wonder?
ReplyDelete