Scilly exotics

I've enjoyed other recent holiday reports on this blog so I hope you'll indulge me writing another one, from a bit closer to home...

It's a bit of a cliche to say that the Isles of Scilly feel like a world away from mainland Britain, despite being just 28 miles off the end of Cornwall. But after my first visit to the archipelago earlier this month I could hardly disagree with the sentiment. The flora in particular felt very exotic, with the bryophytes being no exception. Many species that are common in South Wales were scarce, as would be expected on a series of small, remote islands. The epiphyte flora in particular seemed impoverished, with most tree trunks being lichen-dominated instead - even Frullania dilatata was somewhat localised. This was adequately compensated for by the plethora of exotic species (liverworts mostly) which are scarce or absent on the mainland, some of which are imports from the Southern Hemisphere and some possibly from the Mediterranean.

The fun started at Lower Moors nature reserve on St Mary's, where I got excited by an extensive yellowy patch of Telaranea murphyae growing by a path to a bird hide (photos below). I thought this liverwort was restricted to Tresco but I later discovered that the population at Lower Moors had been found in 2003. It appears that the taxonomic position of T. murphyae remains somewhat uncertain; it has not been found as a native in the Southern Hemisphere and was described new to science from Tresco, though it may just be a form of T. tetradactyla. A potentially new population was found later in the week by a path near the lifeboat station at Hugh Town (lower photo).

The excitement really started on Tresco, where a flowerbed in the Abbey Gardens was dotted with the lovely rosettes of Riccia crystallina intermingled with numerous Sphaerocarpos plants (photos below). I collected three Sphaerocarpos samples and after a few days incubation each produced mature spores to enable species identification; pleasingly both species were represented with two samples being S. michelii (spore photo bottom left) and one S. texanus (bottom right).

 

Telaranea murphyae was seen in a few locations within the gardens, along with Lophocolea semiteres and L. bispinosa, but was much more abundant along Abbey Drive where extensive yellow sheets of it covered the ground wherever there was shade from trees (upper photos, below). Growing with it was Calyptrochaeta apiculata (lower photos) - in the Britain Isles this Southern Hemisphere species is known only from here and single sites in Sussex and Ireland.

Bulb fields on St Mary's revealed more Sphaerocarpos michelii, Riccia crystallina and a single rosette of Riccia subbifurca (unless it is R. crozalsii - but I don't think so).

Even the small garden of our cottage had a flowerbed with plenty of fruiting Anthoceros punctatus (photo) and a stone covered in Scorpiurium circinatum.

I'm already looking forward to making another visit sometime...

Anthoceros punctatus in Ystradgynlais

Found in disturbed pasture today and wonder if this might be new for vc42? Voucher retained if necessary. Horns still 'in bud', but plenty ripe antheridia on view...

leaf section showing aereolate thaluls

 antheridia (small tick marks = 2.5 microns)

A weekend on Lundy - mosses and liverworts

Clare and I spent the bank holiday weekend on the magical Lundy Island, sailing from Bideford after dropping Bea and Johnny with their grandparents in Sussex.  South Wales was visible from Lundy (when it wasn't raining), so perhaps it isn't stretching the Blog title too much to mention some of the bryophytes I bumped into during our visit.  Clare enjoys walking for walking's sake, whereas I walk to get to recording sites, but we had a good compromise where Clare strode between headlands and waited with a book whilst I made a few stops in between; we did plenty of walking together too.

On our first day included a walk up the west coast of the island as far as the Halfway Wall.  The path down to the Battery produced Anthoceros punctatus (photo) and Tritomaria exsectiformis (photo), whilst rocky heathland a little further north held Kurzia sylvatica.  A flushed area (photo) with Bryum alpinum also supported Fossombronia sp with violet rhizoids, which I suspect is F. maritima; I'm growing some on in a tube in the hope of sporophytes.  Pogonatum nanum (photo) was fruiting beautifully on a bank nearby.

Our second day was marred by heavy rain in the morning, but we ventured out a few times along the east side of the island.  Bryological highlight was Frullania teneriffae (new for VC4) alongside Scapania gracilis in the VC Quarry (photo).  Exploration of the wooded Millcombe valley produced Epipterygium tozeri, Pohlia lutescens and Plagiochila asplenioides, whilst Schistidium rivulare was a surprise on rocks in the Quarter Wall Pond.

Our third and final day involved a stomp along 'The High Street' to the north end of the island (4 km away from The Village) followed by a walk back along the east side.  Lepidozia cupressina (photo) and Dicranum scottianum (photo) grew together on a tor just south of Gannets Coombe - like Dartmoor in miniature - and there were Cephalozia connivens and C. lunulifolia nearby.  Salt-sprayed turf near the northern lighthouse held Hennediella heimii, and a Bryum nearby looked interesting but was unfortunately non-fertile.  Finally, an exploration of Landing Bay while we waited for the boat back to the mainland produced Schistidium maritimum and Weissia perssonii at last: most of the island is too steep to allow descent to the maritime areas favoured by these species.

I don't actually know how many of the 100+ species that I recorded (with 8-fig GPS readings) were new for the island.  The BBS dataset seems extremely incomplete, especially for liverworts, with some broad-date 20th century records and a list made by Mark Pool in 1997; I added nearly 30 species to the hectad tally according to the BBS data.  However, Jean Paton's data from her visit in 1975 does not appear in the BBS dataset and several of my 'additions' were already recorded by her (unsurprisingly!), and Jean spotted several liverwort during her "few hours" on the island that I missed.  The Lundy Field Society reports may include other liverworts, but the issues that I looked at didn't have anything.  Mosses seem to be even more under-recorded, and the only reference I can find is a list from 1959 with IDs by Michael Proctor, and it is that list which forms the basis of the BBS data.  I will, of course, make sure that my records go to the BBS and the Lundy Field Society.

As well as the bryophytes, we saw Lundy's famous Lundy Cabbage (none of the plants by the paths were in flower unfortunately), Balm-leaved Figwort, Primrose Peerless and Ophioglossum azoricum.  Star lichens were Teloschistes flavicans and Anaptychia ciliaris subsp mamillata.  Bird highlights were the Lundy rarities Yellowhammer and Stock Dove, which I found during our wanderings, and there were various Warblers around, Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Whimbrel etc.  Lundy really is a fabulous place for a wildlife-rich holiday!

Anthoceros punctatus revisited

At last, abundant sporophytes on the Afan Forest Park population.

Anthoceros habitat, Afan Forest Park

Abundant sporophytes on Anthoceros punctatus, Afan Forest Park

Anthoceros punctatus, Afan Forest Park

Bits and pieces

On Friday I spent a couple of hours tying up some loose ends. First port of call was the Ty-du arable field (ST103800), where Sam and Julian found immature Phaeoceros thalli in late September. These had matured in the intervening weeks; strangely, all those I found (and there were lots of them) were male, indicating they were the dioecious species P. laevis (photo below left). As in September, Anthoceros thalli were also in evidence (photo below right) and I managed to find some male organs to confirm them as A. agrestis (though I think Sam had already done this).

I was surprised by the abundance of Fossombronia, a genus I've not seen in other arable fields locally.  The sporophytes were immature but after a few days ripening at home I was able to extract spores enabling identification as F. pusilla.

Next stop was the roadside limestone outcrops in Pentyrch, with my hopes high after Barry's recent find of Weissia sterilis in Julian's nearby garden. Although 16 calcicoles were recorded there was no Weissia among them. The best record was probably Brachythecium glareosum.

Finally, 45 minutes were spent in Efail Isaf making a start on ST08X. Among the 36 species recorded were Pleuridium subulatum and Fossombronia pusilla on soil in the village allotments.

An enjoyable two hours despite the hail showers!

Rhymney Riverbank revisited

On Friday I returned to the arable field by the Rhymney (ST2282) to collect hornwort samples for Cambridge University Botanic Garden. After bagging up some nice rosettes of both Anthoceros and Phaeoceros, I continued along the riverbank path to an area of woodland (just north of the M4). This resulted in an additional 16 species for the VC41 part of this tetrad (taking the total to 74 taxa), with minor highlights being a 20x10cm patch of Neckera pumila on a riverbank alder and a small patch of Pseudephemerum nitidum on the root plate of a fallen tree (a drier situation than I imagined for this species, see photo).

Back home, I was relieved to finally locate some male organs on the Anthoceros thalli, the dimensions of which confirmed these as A. agrestis.

Horns a-plenty

On Fridays I mostly look after my younger daughter Amy, but I do get a couple of hours of play time while she is in nursery school - ideal for topping up the bryo counts for some local tetrads. On Friday last week conditions were ideal - some morning rain to moisten up the bryos nicely after the recent dry spell, replaced by sunshine by the time I ventured out.

My target was the west (VC41) bank of the River Rhymney north of Llanedern Bridge. I looked at a short section south of the bridge a year ago but only managed 30 taxa, so wanted to try and bump this up a bit. The usual range of flood zone bryophytes was present, including plenty of fruiting Leskea polycarpa. Of more interest to me were some large patches of fruiting Fissidens crassipes on riverbank rocks (convincing microscopically, with cell and peristome measurements within the ranges given in Smith), the first time I've seen this species on the local rivers.

A patch of knotweed on the riverbank had been chemically treated, allowing bryophytes to flourish on the newly-created bare ground. Both Riccia glauca and R. sorocarpa were present here.

Riccia glauca

Riccia sorocarpa

The best was still to come though. Across the track from the river was a large, grassy arable field and here, along with more crystalworts, were two species of hornwort: large male and female rosettes of Phaeoceros laevis and much smaller rosettes of Anthoceros with well developed horns. Frustratingly, try as I might, I couldn't find any male organs on the Anthoceros sample I brought home, so it will have to go down as Anthoceros sp. (though it's very likely to be A. agrestis as the rosettes were small). Other typical arable bryos were also abundant: Ephemerum minutissimum, Dicranella scherberiana, Trichodon cylindricus and Tortula truncata.

Anthoceros sp.

Anthoceros rosettes

Phaeoceros laevis (female)

Phaeoceros laevis (male)

Phaeoceros laevis (male organs)

I still haven't quite got this tetrad up to 60 species, but perhaps Sam has some records from the eastern (VC35) half?