Slim pickings in the Vale

Parts of the Vale are still chronically under-recorded for bryophytes. The latest VC41 tetrad map shows a particularly bad white hole in SS97 and ST07:

Looking at the OS maps and aerial photos for some of these unrecorded tetrads it became obvious why no bryologists had bothered to record there - a mix of improved grassland and large arable fields, with a few lanes passing through and a distinct lack of woodland. Challenging territory indeed, but feeling rusty after the summer hiatus it seemed a good place to kick off the bryophyte recording season when I had a day off work last week. Not too many species to tax my brain.

I visited three tetrads on a day of sunshine and showers, with some lengthy downpours meaning time was lost while sheltering in the car. I started off at Llysworney, which had a bit more habitat variety than some of the other areas thanks to the village streets and walls, and Worney Wood - a new wood planted by the Woodland Trust. The woodland would presumably have been a couple of boring rye grass fields until it was planted a few years ago. Now it supports young trees quite rich in epiphytes, though with nothing of note except for some Porella platyphylla and Didymodon sinuosus on an old field boundary Ash. Tetrad SS97S has now moved along from 3 to 37 bryophyte species.

Much of the day was spent walking the lanes and footpaths in SS97R, which at least succeeded in putting this tetrad on the bryological map with 49 taxa recorded. It was a bit of s struggle though. The arable fields had been recently sown with winter cereals, but a sample collected from a small area of unploughed margin produced three tuberous Bryum species: B. rubens (large knobbly red tubers), B. ruderale (large tubers & papillose violet rhizoids) and B. violaceum (smaller tubers & smooth violet rhizoids - photo below).

To end the day there was time for a brief stop at Llanmihangel churchyard before the heavens opened again. This small churchyard, tucked into a valley bottom, proved to be the nicest spot of the day, and produced a few species not seen at the earlier sites: Cirriphyllum crassinervium, Lophocolea bidentata, Thuidium tamariscinum and Plagiochila asplenioides (the latter growing on a stone grave). SS97V was another tetrad that hadn't been recorded previously, so all 20 species were new.

A feature of the day was the abundance of Anomodon viticulosus on laneside walls and a few hedgerow tree bases. This species is proving frequent in the lime-rich Vale and I look forward to putting more dots on the map on future visits.

I enjoyed the day despite making only 128 bryophyte records and failing to take any tetrads past the 60 mark. No doubt a spring visit would add a few more Orthotrichum, Ulota, etc, but is it worth the effort? I think the time would probably be better spent elsewhere.

Porella arboris-vitae revisited

I was working on Old Castle Down this morning, and couldn't resist a quick stop to admire the fine patch of Porella arboris-vitae which grows on a lump of limestone here (spot the Mottled Grey resting on the same rock).

I was pleased to find a couple of additional patches of the Porella on adjacent rocks (highlighted in photo below - the original patch is on the right). Somehow I'd missed these on previous visits.

I also checked a nearby limestone wall, but although it was wonderfully mossy, including big sheets of Porella platyphylla, I couldn't find any more arboris-vitae.

Porella pinnata

After completing some domestic chores in Brecon last Saturday Mrs M and I went for a quick walk along the Ghurka Way upstream of the town – we came across a large boulder covered mainly with Anomodon, but just above the water line (on the downstream side just like it says in the Field Guide) was a dark green patch, which I guessed could be Porella pinnata (I didn’t have a lens with me, but even through my rubbish eyes it looked interesting and different to Chiloscyphus) – I eventually got around to putting a stem under the microscope this morning so I could take a pic of the rounded under-leaves and small non-decurrent lobules.

Away from the west, most other records in southern half of Wales are from the River Wye (aka the River Wue according to one LRC record). This appears to be the first record of Porella pinnata from the River Usk – it may well be genuinely scarce along the Usk itself as there have been several lower plant surveys by experienced bryologists along suitable parts of the river. Perhaps some Usk tributaries, such as the Ysgir, which seem much less explored, have undiscovered populations of this liverwort.   

Old Castle Down comes up trumps again

I chanced across a patch of Porella arboris-vitae during a site inspection at Old Castle Down this afternoon. What a super looking liverwort. I wasn't really looking for bryos but the dark patch on a pale limestone background (see lower photo) attracted attention immediately.

The funny thing is that a year ago I did some habitat surveys (including quadrats) about 20m away, and we even had lunch in the grassy area behind the rock in the photo. I didn't spot it then as the patch is on the shady side of the rock facing the woodland edge. I only saw it today as I made a quick inspection of oak buds for Purple Hairstreak eggs.

There didn't seem to be any doubt about the ID but I took a small sample home and nibbled a tiny fragment. This was about an hour ago and the tip of my tongue is still numb - it makes Water-pepper seem quite mild in comparison!

Looking at the Atlas, the nearest Welsh population would appear to be about 50km away. There are closer populations on Exmoor though (just like the High Brown Fritillary!).

Alun Valley

I had some time to kill before a site meeting in the Alun Valley yesterday, and for once it wasn't raining - perfect conditions for a bit of mossing in fact. Sam mentioned in his recent Anomodon post that the river by Old Castle Down is base rich and should be very interesting. In fact the water levels were a bit high to find any of the lower flood zone species, but the limestone stepping stones by the ford (SS908756) were carpeted in a mix of Cinclidotus fontinaloides and Dialytrichia mucronata, with a little bit of Porella platyphylla too.

Anomodon was everywhere - on walls, limestone outcrops and tree trunks both by the river and away from it. The river sometimes dries up in the summer  - it would be fascinating to walk the dry riverbed and sample some of the usually inaccessible tree trunks and boughs.

Anomodon viticulosus carpeting a riverside tree

Part of the reason for the recording session was to try and catch up with Marchesinia mackaii, which has eluded me on the limestones of the north Cardiff ridgeway. Sam discovered it at Craig Ddu in 2013 and it proved to be widespread over a fair stretch of wooded limestone crag (SS908754).

This tetrad (SS97C) should be fantastically rich for bryos - the 69 species shown on Barry's latest map reflects the limited recording done to date. I added around 10 species yesterday, the best of which were Neckera pumila on a hazel by the river and Scapania aspera on shaded limestone (SS907756). The Scapania was recorded in this hectad back in the 1970s by Roy Perry, so it's good to get a specific grid ref for it.


I also had a brief look at an unploughed arable margin on Ewenny Down. Riccia glauca was frequent and, as always with arable, I have several specimens which need closer inspection.

Rose-moss at Cwm Ivy Tor

When heading back after a bird count at Whiteford today I decided to take a quick look at the Rhodobryum roseum site at the base of Cwm Ivy Tor, where Veronica Shenston and myself first recorded it in 2011. Buoyed by the frequency of shoots in this area I thought I'd see how far up the tor the population extended. This small colony appeared to peter out fairly quickly as I headed up the slope, but just below the top of the tor it occurred abundantly on many of the grassy ledges shown in the photo above, even making up a significant part of the sward in places (photo below right is a close up of the area shown by the red penknife above SS4350594041). I was running late so I did not attempt an estimate, but there were possibly thousands of shoots along a 25m section of the ledge I walked.

North-west Gower is a bit of a hot spot for this species as Peter also found two sites at St Madoc's Christian Youth Camp in 2008 and 2009. All sites comprise well-drained, sandy soils around Limestone outcrops and are rabbit/sheep-grazed. The sites at Brandy Cove and Kenfig found by Sam now make it four post-2000 tetrads for Glamorgan.

Plenty of other interesting species and as always a few samples to check, but Porella platyphylla was very abundant on the outcrops with frequent Reboulia hemisphaerica on soil gaps.

Also on the walk back past the dune slack I saw a few good candidate Bryum warneum capsules and where the yellow dunes started there were some patches of Pleurochaete squarrosa growing amongst a carpet of Tortella flavovirens & Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum. P. squarrosa is a good candidate for discovery in NPT Charles.

Bessie's Meadow close-ups

Brachythecium glareosum on a wall in Hillend

Porella obtusata

Pterogonium gracile

Bessie's Meadow

This afternoon I decided to try and relocate the Pterogonium gracile and Hedwigia ciliata, both recorded by Quentin in 1969 at Bessie's Meadow at the north end of Rhossili Down. My other aim was to give the paltry 28 species tetrad total for SS49A a boost. As I started the walk up the hill I was amazed to find some healthy patches of Pterogonium on the very first rock I stopped to look at in the middle of the path (photos below)... result! It turned out that small colonies were scattered across the boulder field, especially in the lower parts.

plants in photo below part of the colony
on the largest rock in the photo above 

The highlight however was a boulder supporting scattered patches of Porella obtusata, new for the county. The large tongue-shaped lobules with larger central cells are diagnostic characters, but the habitat on siliceous boulders seems to be another helpful pointer.

As usual, I have a batch of other samples I've yet to check, the most promising perhaps being Frullania crusts which have the potential to contain fragifolia [sadly not, tamarisci was all I could find]. I also collected a few Grimmia samples in the hope of finding lisae, though I'm expecting these will be trichophylla [they were], plus there was an interesting tiny Fissidens with ripe fruit and long perichaetal leaves which looked interesting [see posting above]. Non-bryo highlights were 3 Dartford Warblers in an area where they've not been recorded previously. All in all it was a productive couple of hours and definitely worth another visit. The boulder field is extensive and I only managed to look at a small sample of it, plus there's Quentin's Hedwigia still to relocate.

Radnorshire riches

A couple of years ago I stopped for a lunchtime walk on Aberedw Rocks SE of Builth Wells, and found a rock covered with Grimmia laevigata and another with abundant G. decipiens.  Both were new to the site, and they suggested that it could be a very rich area for saxicolous mosses.  Targionia hypophylla has been known there for several decades, and there is an intriguing 20th century record of Bartramia stricta from the site, which was purged at the same time as one from Pembrokeshire [so effectively that I couldn't find out where the Pembs claim was made].

Since then the site has been on my 'to do' list, and a sunny 27th April seemed ideal.  I didn't find B. stricta or any more of either Grimmia, but there were several other good species present, including Marchesinia mackaii (photo), Bartramia ithyphylla, Pohlia cruda, Frullania fragilifolia, Seligeria recurvata, Plagiochila bifaria, P punctata & P spinulosa, Porella arboris-vitae (photo) and Orthothecium intricatum.

The two rarest species were the Nationally Scarce Plagiopus oederianus (photo, with some Bartramia pomiformis for comparison), which is abundant on north-facing rock outcrops, and the Nationally Scarce Encalypta ciliata (photo), which was only present in one small area and was last recorded on the site in 1923.

Biggest surprise was a tuft of Orthotrichum rupestre (photo), which only has 3 previous Radnorshire records and remains unknown further SW in Wales.  Its very hairy calyptra, superficial stomata, upright exostome teeth and half-pliccate capsules were distinctive.

I thought that the highlight of the day was going to be a round-leaved liverwort in a flush, which clearly wasn't Odontoschisma and seemed sure to be my first ever Jamesoniella undulifolia.  To my shock and disappointment, I found under the microscope that it had violet rhizoids, making it Jungermannia hyalina very out of habitat.

Overall it was a wonderful day of mossing, and the site is clearly of SSSI quality for its bryophytes.