Daltonia twitch

Once I'd relocated the log on which Sam found the Daltonia last week, using the photo to locate the positions of tufts was a straight forward affair, although they were quite a bit smaller than expected, so detail was very helpful. Arriving early meant globules of water were enveloping everything (blown away in photos), but the lids of the capsules of this pretty little moss still glistened like gold and I was very pleased to see this special feature. In addition to the tufts highlighted by Sam, I noted an addition four fruiting tufts immediately to the right of the log lying on the main log, as viewed in Sam's context shot. My context shot, taken from the other side of the log, shows the locations of these additional tufts, with the camera in-shot positioned on the single left-hand tuft shown in Sam's photo.

Well I wasn't expecting that!

Actually, to be honest I was secretly hoping that Santa might bring me some Daltonia splachnoides during one of my days in Coedydd Nedd a Mellte, but the first couple of hours today were so dull I was really shocked to see the pretty little fringed calyptrae poking out from a log covered in Scapania nemorea.  The location - well up the Mellte valleyside between Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn and Sgwd y Pannwr - was hardly classic for Hyperoceanic species, but I'm not complaining!  This is the 4th Welsh record of this UKBAP/Section 7 moss, following three on Salix in conifer plantations in Brechfa Forest, near Llyn Brianne and near Llanwonno in the Glamorgan valleys.  It was new for Breconshire, although the Llyn Brianne colony was only a stone's throw into Carmarthenshire.  The general theory is that this Hyperoceanic moss is a spore-vagrant from Ireland, following Colura but more ecologically demanding.  Its presence in Coedydd Nedd a Mellte SAC raises the unanswerable question of how many other Hyperoceanic rarities in the SAC are relatively recent arrivals and how many are relicts; it is notable, though, that Aphanolejeunea and Drepanolejeunea are only on riverside (mostly cascade-side) trees, so even if they are recent arrivals they have found their way to classic oceanic woodland micro-niches.

This was certainly the highlight of my day in the central Mellte, but some lovely patches of Drepanolejeunea hamatifolia on a classic riverside Ash tree below Sgwd y Pannwr, new for the Mellte, came a close second.

Otherwise, the west bank of the Mellte was good but predictable: Anastrophyllum hellerianum in a few places (only on 4 or 5 trees); equally scattered Jamesoniella autumnalis (on perhaps 15 logs & trees); Cephalozia catenulata, Lophozia incisa and Odontoschisma denudatum on logs in a side valley; one small colony of Plagiochila spinulosa; and a few tufts of Colura on riverside Hazel.  Abundant Zygodon rupestris with a few sporophytes was perhaps the biggest surprise, growing on trees in the mist zone of Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn.