Mosses over the sea

There is very little land in ST1971 but this monad does include the outer portion of Penarth Pier. A trip with the family last weekend revealed six species growing on the wooden deck of the pier, directly above the sea at high tide but presumably elevated enough to limit the influence of salt. The species were Bryum capillare, B. argentuem, B. dichotomum, Ceratodon purpureus, Hypnum cupressiforme and Dicranoweissia cirrata.

Lower Clydach River above Craig-cefn-parc

I never found anything remarkable during a two hour search along a 1km stretch of the river today, which lacked any cascades greater than what are visible in the above photo. There was a nice colony of Jungermannia pumila (above) on one of only a couple of small cliffs, but probably the most interesting species were Ephemerum minutissimum and Bryum sauteri in an area of disturbed M23a.

One curiosity was Phlebia radiata which was enveloping entire shoots of Hypnum cupressiforme creating an interesting form (note the sample on the right in the image below has been turned upside-down). 

Hillend ORS

Today I finally checked a few specimens I brought back from a 1 hour visit to Hillend, at the northern end of Rhossili Down,on the 4th (the area searched shown above). There is a nice rocky ridge in this area, marking the geological boundary of the Brownstones formation and the Upper ORS. The Frullania on the rocks looked interesting and one of my samples had a mix of tamarisci, dilatata and microphylla var. microphylla, the latter new for the county. I'm pretty confident this is correct and whilst a barely detectable fragrance put a little doubt in my mind, everything else seems spot on. The flat leaves seem to be a good field feature. Occasional burgundy patches of Frullania were dotted around the rocks and whilst I'm not 100% sure which rock my sample came from, I suspect it was that shown in the above photo (approximately SS41939097). I'm sure further searches will reveal further patches with microphylla mixed in. Other species noted included some nice patches of Grimmia trichophylla, Pterogonium gracile and Scleropodium touretii.

G. trichophylla

coastal lichens were much more prominent than bryos.

rocks with Pterogonium, Isothecium myosuroides and Hypnum cupressiforme var. resupinatum

Lanlay Meadows

My first square bash of 2017, yesterday afternoon, took me to National Trust's Lanlay Meadows in the eastern Vale. It's a nice site where I've done some moth trapping in the past; a series of dry meadows (cut for hay) and wet meadows (dominated by Molinia, with some Carex swamp), bordering the River Ely. There are also thick hedges and some cracking veteran oaks. The site falls within tetrad ST07S, which had previous records of 48 bryo taxa from various sources (including a thatch survey by Richard Lansdown and Sam, and some urban recording by Barry in Bonvilston).

In some ways the visit was disappointing - the oaks were clothed in Hypnum spp but little else, and most of the riverbank trees were frustratingly out of reach (the banks were steep and topped with dense bramble). I did manage to grab a few arm's-length samples from riverbank alders by lying on the bank; these resulted in a few silty epiphytes: Leskea polycarpa, Homalia trichomanoides and Plagiomnium rostratum. Elsewhere, small streams crossing the site produced a fair range of species including Hygroamblystegium tenax. By the time I got to the sedge swamp it was almost dark, but the few grab samples I took home included some straggly shoots of Calliergon cordifolium, last recorded at the site on a CCW survey back in 1995 (photos below).

 

The tetrad total has risen to 72 taxa.

Swansea main line slag walls revisited

'railway hepatic mat'

Scapania compacta

I was back at Llwynbrwydrau today, so before going on site I went down to Llansamlet railway station to see if the slag wall did, as suspected, extend all the way along this section.  Sure enough at the east end of the platform I could see the wall was continued to this more western location (which also happens to be in the next tetrad to the west) and I took the opportunity to take a sneaky look at the first 10m (or so). A less hurried search produced more hepatics, with the following noted growing on or between the slag blocks:
Cephalozia bicuspidata (r)
Cephaloziella stellulifera (only seen at eastern location)
Diplophyllum albicans (o)
Gymnocolea inflata (r)
Lophocolea bidentata (o)
Nardia scalaris (f)
Scapania compacta (o)
Solenostoma gracillimum (o-lf)
Solenostoma hyalinum (o)
Mosses were more prominent on the peaty soil on top of and behind the retaining wall, though there was nothing of any real note other than fruiting Hypnum jutlandicum. Unfortunately no real metallophyte assemblage, so no realistic Scopelophia potential in this section, but I live in hope...

Hypnum jutlandicum in fruit

Cwm Dulais (Pontarddulais)

This afternoon I spent 40 mins of Alfie-time looking at a small part of what is a much wider area of south-facing coal spoil in Cwm Dulais SN613036 - how many Cwm Dulais's must there be in Wales! An unremarkable total of 31 bryos were recorded, along with what I'm suspecting must be Galium parisiense, which was locally frequent. I'm not sure if G. parisiense has been recorded on coal spoil before, but it's clearly well adapted to it and would be worth checking for on other tips. Bryologiocally, there was nothing of great note, but it was an interesting assemblage all the same, with frequent Archidium alternifolium (photo 3), Homalothecium lutescens, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum (photos 3-4) and occasional Calliergonella lindbergii, Didymodon ferrugineus, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (photo 4) & Trichostomum crispulum. Nearby, Fontinalis antipyretica and F. squamosa were noted growing side-by-side in the river.

Fuligo muscorum

Fuligo muscorum on Hypnum in Sitka Spruce plantation

Look out for this slime mold. It is fairly easy to identify, although it might be mistaken for Fuligo septica, which is a very common and familiar slime mold that looks a little bit like scrambled eggs (or dog vomit). Fuligo muscorum is almost always found growing on forest floor mosses. It is an Atlantic species which is probably fairly widespread in our area but there are relatively few records of it for Wales. It loves humid conifer forests.

This autumn looks as if it is going to be a good one for slime molds, particularly Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, which is a very attractive species and is found in similar habitats to Fuligo muscorum. We had both today in the Rheola Sitka Spruce plantation.

Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa on rotten spruce wood

Apologies for the marginal bryo content.

Commonest bryophyte species

Julita Klusa has just put a link to her list of Latvia's top 20 commonest bryophytes on Twitter.  It is fascinatingly different to the top 20 in south Wales!

Rank	Pembrokeshire (SW Wales)	Latvia	UK notes
1	Kindbergia praelonga	Hypnum cupressiforme	Abundant (No. 2 in Pembrokeshire)
2	Hypnum cupressiforme	Leucodon sciuroides	Uncommon and very local
3	Brachythecium rutabulum	Hylocomium splendens	Locally abundant but habitat specific
4	Frullania dilatata	Plagiomnium undulatum	Locally abundant but habitat specific
5	Metzgeria furcata	Pleurozium schreberi	Locally abundant but habitat specific
6	Lophocolea bidentata	Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus	Locally abundant but habitat specific
7	Isothecium myosuroides	Dicranum scoparium	Locally abundant but habitat specific
8	Bryum dichotomum	Climacium dendroides	Uncommon and local
9	Mnium hornum	Orthotrichum speciosum	Rare and eastern, not in Wales
10	Tortula muralis	Radula complanata	Increasing and locally abundant
11	Bryum capillare	Atrichum undulatum	Abundant (No. 12 in Pembrokeshire)
12	Atrichum undulatum	Nowellia curvifolia	Locally abundant but habitat specific
13	Ulota phyllantha	Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus	Locally abundant but habitat specific
14	Dicranella heteromalla	Eurhynchium angustirete	Not British
15	Bryum argenteum	Homalia trichomanoides	Locally abundant but habitat specific
16	Calliergonella cuspidata	Ptilium crista-castrensis	Uncommon and north-eastern
17	Fissidens bryoides	Plagiochila asplenioides	Locally abundant but habitat specific
18	Thuidium tamariscinum	Syntrichia ruralis	Locally abundant but habitat specific
19	Didymodon insulanus	Neckera pennata	Extinct in Britain, one historic record
20	Ulota bruchii	Plagiomnium cuspidatum	Uncommon and very local

This has got me thinking again what a pity it is that the South Wales Bryophyte Blog is only visible to 'members' and I wonder whether we could make it more visible but with commenting and blogging limited to 'members'.