Habrodon at Merthyr Mawr

I was at Merthyr Mawr today for a site meeting with Duncan Ludlow, and having mentioned Habrodon perpusillus while we were chatting in the car park Duncan offered to show me the sycamore which hosts this rare moss. Despite Duncan leading me to the exact multi-trunked tree I couldn't spot it, but I nipped back afterwards for another look and found numerous small patches on one of the trunks (circled yellow in photo below).

I was struck by the superficial similarity to young Cryphaea, as Sam and Barry have commented previously.

The good news is that Duncan has removed the Holm Oak that was shading the host tree, and plans to fell further Holm Oaks slightly further away. Hopefully this will allow enough light onto the sycamore trunk for the Habrodon to persist.

Sir John's Hill Habrodon revisited

Habrodon habitat: Ash trunk on south facing escarpment

I was back counting Golden Plovers between Laugharne and Pendine yesterday and I paid my respects to the Habrodon perpusillus. It appeared far more distinctive to my eye on this visit compared to previous visits, when conditions were dry, so hopefully this pic will prove useful in helping to develop a search image for this very rare, but easily overlooked species.

wet Habrodon

Squirrel-tail Mosses

After my Golden Plover count at Pendine this morning, I called in to ask permission from the Mayor of Laugharne (Bob Stevens) to visit the Sir John's Hill population of Habrodon perpusillus (Lesser Squirrel-tail Moss). Aided by Sam’s excellent 2005 report this diminutive pleurocarp wasn't too difficult to locate, although I’m not sure I’d have found it without this, as the resemblance to non-fruiting Cryphaea is very disconcerting. Anyway I'm pleased to report that the site appears unchanged since Sam's survey and plants were found on all the known trees I checked.

The Sycamores in foreground and the Ash by the far bend
define the known limits of the colony

Sycamores 8 (multi-stem on the left), 9 & 10 (centre) along the bottom edge
of Sir John's Hill [8 & 9 both support Habrodon]

Habrodon perpusillus

Unfortunately I did not have time to look elsewhere for additional colonies, but one of the Sycamores (tree 7 in the report) had a few tufts of Leucodon sciuroides (Squirrel-tail Moss) growing on a ~5cm dia. horizontal branch, which is a new hectad record. This was also a new species for me, giving me two squirrel-tail ticks in one day! Now I have these both on my radar, a revisit to the Penrice estate has to be worth a shout, plus there's still the mythical Leptodon to refind (if that's where it was!).

Leucodon sciuroides