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.

Slim pickings in the Vale

Parts of the Vale are still chronically under-recorded for bryophytes. The latest VC41 tetrad map shows a particularly bad white hole in SS97 and ST07:

Looking at the OS maps and aerial photos for some of these unrecorded tetrads it became obvious why no bryologists had bothered to record there - a mix of improved grassland and large arable fields, with a few lanes passing through and a distinct lack of woodland. Challenging territory indeed, but feeling rusty after the summer hiatus it seemed a good place to kick off the bryophyte recording season when I had a day off work last week. Not too many species to tax my brain.

I visited three tetrads on a day of sunshine and showers, with some lengthy downpours meaning time was lost while sheltering in the car. I started off at Llysworney, which had a bit more habitat variety than some of the other areas thanks to the village streets and walls, and Worney Wood - a new wood planted by the Woodland Trust. The woodland would presumably have been a couple of boring rye grass fields until it was planted a few years ago. Now it supports young trees quite rich in epiphytes, though with nothing of note except for some Porella platyphylla and Didymodon sinuosus on an old field boundary Ash. Tetrad SS97S has now moved along from 3 to 37 bryophyte species.

Much of the day was spent walking the lanes and footpaths in SS97R, which at least succeeded in putting this tetrad on the bryological map with 49 taxa recorded. It was a bit of s struggle though. The arable fields had been recently sown with winter cereals, but a sample collected from a small area of unploughed margin produced three tuberous Bryum species: B. rubens (large knobbly red tubers), B. ruderale (large tubers & papillose violet rhizoids) and B. violaceum (smaller tubers & smooth violet rhizoids - photo below).

To end the day there was time for a brief stop at Llanmihangel churchyard before the heavens opened again. This small churchyard, tucked into a valley bottom, proved to be the nicest spot of the day, and produced a few species not seen at the earlier sites: Cirriphyllum crassinervium, Lophocolea bidentata, Thuidium tamariscinum and Plagiochila asplenioides (the latter growing on a stone grave). SS97V was another tetrad that hadn't been recorded previously, so all 20 species were new.

A feature of the day was the abundance of Anomodon viticulosus on laneside walls and a few hedgerow tree bases. This species is proving frequent in the lime-rich Vale and I look forward to putting more dots on the map on future visits.

I enjoyed the day despite making only 128 bryophyte records and failing to take any tetrads past the 60 mark. No doubt a spring visit would add a few more Orthotrichum, Ulota, etc, but is it worth the effort? I think the time would probably be better spent elsewhere.

Rhiwsaeson

Yesterday's lunchtime outing was pleasing because it turned out to be less mundane than I expected. My aim was to top up tetrad ST08R (east of Llantrisant) from the existing list of 20 species recorded by CCW in the 90s. I wasn't sure exactly where I'd end up but there was parking at Rhiwsaeson so I explored the area along the old railway line from ST070828 as far as the Nant Myddlyn at ST072828.

Epiphytes were plentiful on the young ash trees along the old railway and included 6 species of Orthotrichum (topped up to 8 species by O. diaphanum and O. anomalum on concrete fence posts). The highlight was found on hazel at the bottom of the railway embankment - a 10cm long patch of Pylaisia polyantha with the characteristic multiple generations of capsules present. I think this is the 5th Glamorgan tetrad, of which three are between Cardiff and Llantrisant.

The banks of the Nant Meddlyn were rather nice too, with abundant Homalia and a little Anomodon on stonework by the stream (photo below), Lejeunea lamacerina on alder and Neckera complanata and Sciuro-hypnum populeum on sycamore.

My list so far is 58 species though I have a few Ulota samples still to check. Most of the CCW species were different so the tetrad total should now exceed 70 - I think I'll call that 'job done' for this one (though it's tempting to have a look at the nearby hillfort sometime).

Afon Alun

A visit to Coed-y-bwl to enjoy the Daffodil display provided an opportunity for a little bit of bryologising in this well recorded tetrad. I never saw anything of special note, though it was only the second time I've encountered fruiting Dialytrichia mucronata, which was well-established on Pont Brown. The lane walls were covered in mosses - mostly Thamnobryum alopecurum and Anomodon viticulosus - and a riverside Field Maple was heavily draped with mosses including Neckera pumila. A really lovely mossy site.

Anomodon again

At lunch today I took a quick walk along the lane to Llanwenarth church just west of Abergavenny. Following Charles' recent mention of Anomodon I recalled that a couple of patches grow on the roadside wall in front of the church.  It is a south-facing wall only lightly shaded by a tall-ish hedge on the opposite side of the road, but with some of the wall being built into a bank, the stones in the wall presumably soak up enough moisture from the soil to allow the Anomodon to grow.   A closer look revealed that as well as the two small patches growing on the wall itself, another patch grows on a sandstone boulder embeded in an earth bank with it also spreading onto an adjacent rotting log.   Peering deeper into the hedge also revealed two very separate patches growing at the base of a couple of hawthorn bushes - I can't recall if I have seen Anomodon growing on hawthorn before.

Anomodon viticulosus in Resolven

I associate Anomodon viticulosus with limestone, although it is known to grow occasionally on base rich sandstones. It is fairly local in VC41 and it's one of those fairly strict calcicoles that I would not expect to find in the heart of the South Wales Coalfield in NPT -  but I will understand it if you are not as excited about this as me! Anyway, yesterday H and I did some recording on the Afan Nedd and we came across it on a shaded railway bridge over the river near Resolven, quite a disjunct location in a South Wales context, particularly since it rarely produces sporophytes.

Anomodon viticulosus on railway bridge near Resolven

The riparian habitat hereabouts has a nice flora. It supports a large population of Saxifraga granulata and is the most southerly location for Crepis paludosa in the British Flora. Along the river corridor Wych Elms (and  some Small-leaved Lime) provide the canopy for a diverse woodland flora with some conspicuous bryophytes such as Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus, R. loreus and sparkling patches of Cirriphyllum piliferum, an uncommon moss in NPT. 

Cirriphyllum piliferum, Resolven

Homalia trichomanoides is abundant on the boles of riverside trees, Mnium stellare is frequent on riverside banks and the silty flood zone has a significant amount of Mnium marginatum; a much larger population than I had previously thought.

 Minim marginatum var. marginatum, Resolven

Alun Valley

I had some time to kill before a site meeting in the Alun Valley yesterday, and for once it wasn't raining - perfect conditions for a bit of mossing in fact. Sam mentioned in his recent Anomodon post that the river by Old Castle Down is base rich and should be very interesting. In fact the water levels were a bit high to find any of the lower flood zone species, but the limestone stepping stones by the ford (SS908756) were carpeted in a mix of Cinclidotus fontinaloides and Dialytrichia mucronata, with a little bit of Porella platyphylla too.

Anomodon was everywhere - on walls, limestone outcrops and tree trunks both by the river and away from it. The river sometimes dries up in the summer  - it would be fascinating to walk the dry riverbed and sample some of the usually inaccessible tree trunks and boughs.

Anomodon viticulosus carpeting a riverside tree

Part of the reason for the recording session was to try and catch up with Marchesinia mackaii, which has eluded me on the limestones of the north Cardiff ridgeway. Sam discovered it at Craig Ddu in 2013 and it proved to be widespread over a fair stretch of wooded limestone crag (SS908754).

This tetrad (SS97C) should be fantastically rich for bryos - the 69 species shown on Barry's latest map reflects the limited recording done to date. I added around 10 species yesterday, the best of which were Neckera pumila on a hazel by the river and Scapania aspera on shaded limestone (SS907756). The Scapania was recorded in this hectad back in the 1970s by Roy Perry, so it's good to get a specific grid ref for it.


I also had a brief look at an unploughed arable margin on Ewenny Down. Riccia glauca was frequent and, as always with arable, I have several specimens which need closer inspection.

Riverside Anomodon

I usually associate Anomodon viticulosus with limestone, and it is certainly most abundant in VC35 on the Carboniferous Limestone of the lower Wye Valley and at lower altitudes around The Blorenge, but there are also plenty of colonies on riverside trees here.  I assume that this results from silt deposition, also favoured by Orthotrichum sprucei.

A riverside patch of Anomodon viticulosus, and the species' distribution in Monmouthshire, with riverine populations (ringed in yellow) on the Usk, Monnow and Trothy, and limestone populations (ringed in green) around the coalfield, in the Wye Valley and near Usk.

I saw a large patch of Anomodon on the base of a mature Sycamore by the River Usk just upstream of Newbridge-on-Usk on Saturday, during my first (very brief) bryo-recording walk of the season.  Orthotrichum sprucei was frequent, including on a Field Maple by the lane above the river (about 15m above the usual water level), and I also found a small population of O. rivulare (much rarer by the Usk than its relative).  Leskea and Syntrichia latifolia were abundant, but Plagiomnium rostratum was remarkably rare and I found no sign of Mnium marginatum, M. stellare, Dialytrichia mucronata, Tortula subulata or Myrinia pulvinata (all present but rare alongside Monmouthshire's rivers).  I was also surprised not to spot any Hennediella stanfordensis.  It would be a very interesting project to compare south Wales' varied riverine bryophyte floras.

Cefn Onn

On Sunday morning I took a quick stomp from Parc Cefn Onn up to the old limestone quarry on the ridgeway north of Cardiff. Virtually the whole walk fell within tetrad ST18S, which must be one of the richest for bryophytes in south-east Glamorgan - a mixture of wooded country park, acid woodland on the lower slopes and limestone woodland and exposed outcrops at the ridgetop. I had a cursory look at the bryos back in 2011, and a few others (including Peter Sturgess, who's now signed up to this blog - hello Peter!)  have done some recording too, but it's never had a thorough survey. There's also some conifer plantation within the same tetrad, on the Caerphilly side of the ridgeway, which hasn't been looked at.

The wooded limestone outcrops below the quarry support some impressive carpets of Anomodon viticulosus (see photo above), plenty of Neckera crispa and Tortella tortuosa, and smaller quantities of Eucladium verticillatum and Cirriphyllum crassinervium.

Neckera crispa

The quarry itself looked fairly horrific on first impression - it was being used for overwintering cattle and you can see the effect this has had in the photo below.

The quarry sides were undamaged, however, and produced a good range of calcicoles including Aloina aloides (fruiting), Ditrichum gracile and Trichostomum crispulum.

Ditrichum gracile

An area of short limestone turf above the quarry produced Brachythecium glareosum, Campylium protensum, Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus and, more surprisingly, a small patch of Hylocomium splendens (presumably in an area that has been leached).

Finally, an area of hilltop limestone outcrops to the west of the quarry (photo below) added Pseudocrossidium revolutum as well as more Ditrichum gracile. I found Dicranum bonjeanii in this area in 2011 but couldn't relocate it on Sunday.

Thanks to Peter Sturgess for suggesting the ID of Ditrichum gracile, which he'd found in the same area. I was put off the scent by the small size of the patches at Cefn Onn (only 2cm tall), but am pretty sure this is what they are.