End of year square-bash at Rhosaman

An afternoon square-bash in SN71G took the square total from 5 to 83. I spent most time searching an area of colliery spoil which produced 63 species directly on spoil; nothing exciting, those of general interest included Aneura pinguis, Archidium alternifolium, Aulacomnium palustre (unusually plants were scattered over a steep dry bank with a broken sward), Calliergonella lindbergii, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Racomitrium ericoides, R. fasciculare, R. lanuginosum, Riccardia multifida, Sciuro-hypnum plumosum (surprisingly frequent on shaley ground). Despite a decent return I was disappointed not to find any Ptilidium, nor any Weissia or Fossombronia spp. to name but a few I was anticipating.  I didn’t have time to walk the wooded banks of the Aman, which could well have taken the square total over 100 ... another day perhaps!  I did manage to take a very quick look in the river by the footbridge, where Hygrohypnum ochraceum covered the larger rocks along with a little Marchantia polymorpha subsp. polymorpha. This may have been my last bryophyte outing in what’s been another very enjoyable year of recording. Best wishes to all for the year ahead...

PS. If anyone can put a name to the brown lichen I’d be interested to know.

 Racomitrium ericoides-Cladonia portentosa spoil community

  Sciuro-hypnum plumosum 

  Aulacomnium palustre

  Lophozia ventricosa 

  unidentified lichen

 Hygrohypnum ochraceum

Afon Afan, Pontrhydyfen

Yesterday a revisit to a site I'd looked at back in 2011 gave me the opportunity to check a short section of riverbank, which was largely modified by concrete and limestone blocks beneath the old bridge abutments. A small patch of Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens was probably the highlight (photos above), growing alongside Weissia controversa var. densifolia, the latter visible in the second photo as a bright green strip running between the large metal pipe and the colony of B. ferruginascens.

Schistidium platyphyllum (two images below-left) was frequent on the concrete and rocks that get periodically inundated, associates including Hygroamblystegium tenax and Hygrohypnum luridum  (two images below-right).

Nant Cae-dudwg (Part 2)

A couple more goodies from yesterday's outing, checked microscopically tonight.

The first section of the Nant Cae-dudwg I walked along was heavily modified (see photo below), a legacy of past mining activity. The feeder stream indicated by the yellow arrow was chanelled within concrete walls, the tops of which had a nice assemblage of bryophytes.

This Schistidium elegantulum was growing among abundant S. crassipilum and looked markedly different from it, with much longer hair points. At least 6 stomata were present at the base of the capsule I sliced in half.

The blurry rear of the photo above is shown in the photo below - a shaggy mat of Hygrohypnum luridum with young sporophytes. Under the microscope, the brownish granular alar cells and incurved upper leaf margins characteristic of this species were evident.

Rivers Tawe & Clydach

Some pit-stop recording today helped fill in a few gaps and provided a few records of interest. Finding some real Mnium marginatum (photos above) on the silty banks of the Tawe has finally put me on the right track with this species. But just as one puzzle is solved another pops up ... this time some locally abundant Hygrohypnum growing on silty boulders in the River Clydach. I've been unable to find any trace of hyaline auricles, only pigmented incrassate alar cells which appear to have granular material within them. Given the habitat I was expecting it to be ochraceum, not luridum (any comments welcome on this, some ropey shots of sample leaves below). A final brief stop at a sandstone crag at Tor Clawdd produced some beautiful Pohlia elongata and Scapania compacta growing amongst Marsupella marginata var. marginata on a sunken boulder.

Hook-leaf query

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but this hook-leaved moss from Merthyr Common last week has me stumped. It was growing in a flush (or near the stream that ran along the bottom of it - I can't quite remember now) which was probably quite acidic.

I was sure this was going to be Warnstorfia exannulata but there is no trace of a nerve on most of the leaves (some have a faint short double nerve), and I can't see anything that fits the bill. Leaves are 2mm long, hooked but not forming complete loops. Suggestions appreciated, thanks.

Cwm Clydach (Brecs)

A couple of pics from a site visit to Brynmawr Sections SSSI last week:

Hygrohypnum luridum on concrete retainer

Scapania compacta on thin soil over sandstone