Ton-up

Actually more like ton-down: I have fewer than 100 tetrads left unsurveyed for bryophytes in Monmouthshire (VC35)!  Bea had a birthday party just across the border yesterday, so I had nearly 4 hours to record 1.5 tetrads in the White Castle area.  Both were good examples of typical NE Monmouthshire - lovely rolling landscape with deep-cut streams and lane banks exposing neutral Old Red Sandstone.  Highlights among the 77 species recorded in SO31Y (Upper Cwm lanes) were (+indicates photo): +Eurhynchium schleicheri (abundant on one lane bank), +Plagiothecium curvifolium (fruiting on a large tree-stump), +Pylaisia polyantha (one large patch on a fallen canopy Ash branch), Platygyrium repens (a few patches on roadside Clematis), Rhynchostegiella teneriffae (frequent on ORS rocks in a stream gully) and Mnium stellare (large patches on stream bank), as well as the full suite of regular epiphytic Orthotrichum and some wall, track and tarmac 'grots'. 

I made a start on SO31Z in 2007 (Bont), so topped up that lanes list with a visit to a locality where a footpath crossed a deep-cut stream (Red Castle cwm), taking the tetrad total up to 79 spp.  Yesterday's highlights included +Plagiochila porelloides & +Scleropodium cespitans sharing sandstone outcrops, Rhynchostegiella teneriffae in the stream, and Mnium stellare on the stream bank.  It's really good to know what the background bryophyte flora of this part of the county is like.

Rhiwsaeson

Yesterday's lunchtime outing was pleasing because it turned out to be less mundane than I expected. My aim was to top up tetrad ST08R (east of Llantrisant) from the existing list of 20 species recorded by CCW in the 90s. I wasn't sure exactly where I'd end up but there was parking at Rhiwsaeson so I explored the area along the old railway line from ST070828 as far as the Nant Myddlyn at ST072828.

Epiphytes were plentiful on the young ash trees along the old railway and included 6 species of Orthotrichum (topped up to 8 species by O. diaphanum and O. anomalum on concrete fence posts). The highlight was found on hazel at the bottom of the railway embankment - a 10cm long patch of Pylaisia polyantha with the characteristic multiple generations of capsules present. I think this is the 5th Glamorgan tetrad, of which three are between Cardiff and Llantrisant.

The banks of the Nant Meddlyn were rather nice too, with abundant Homalia and a little Anomodon on stonework by the stream (photo below), Lejeunea lamacerina on alder and Neckera complanata and Sciuro-hypnum populeum on sycamore.

My list so far is 58 species though I have a few Ulota samples still to check. Most of the CCW species were different so the tetrad total should now exceed 70 - I think I'll call that 'job done' for this one (though it's tempting to have a look at the nearby hillfort sometime).

Pylaisia at last

Going through some samples collected from a visit to Creigiau at the weekend, I wondered to myself 'why did I bring that Hypnum home?'. Then I looked at the capsules and realised it was Pylaisia polyantha. In the field I hadn't bothered to look properly at the capsules (and hadn't noticed there were several generations of capsules present), but I guess something about it looked different from typical Hypnum.

The habitat was a willow trunk in wet woodland at ST076812 - only about 3km north-west of where Sam found it recently in similar habitat (at Ty-du SSSI), but in a different 10km square. It is likely that I've overlooked other populations of this moss in south-east Glamorgan.

Ty-du Moors SSSI

I spent a fascinating and enjoyable day on this Cardiff fen with Julian Woodman, trying to work out why base-rich areas (with Eriophorum latifolium, Epipactis palustris, Gymnadenia sp. and Triglochin palustris) are becoming increasingly dominated by Sphagnum subnitens and Aulacomnium palustre.  We concluded that more work is needed, with input from Gareth Farr (what a shame you couldn't join us today, Gareth), but probing revealed over 2.5m of peat near the centre of the moor, whilst test coring showed that the base-rich areas and associated Juncus subnodulosus fen are on continuous peat, whereas the edges of the moor with Carex acutiformis fen has a layer of organic-rich clay-silt above the peat.

Campylium protensum is locally abundant in the remaining good, base-rich areas, along with Fissidens adianthoides, Plagiomnium ellipticum, P. undulatum and one stand of Dicranum bonjeanii.  Chiloscyphus pallescens and Cratoneuron filicinum were only in one area.  Poached damp grassland held Pseudephemerum nitidum and one patch of Ephemerum serratum. 

A check of surrounding Willow scrub was worthwhile, with a fruiting patch of Pylaisia polyantha on one Willow, as well as commoner epiphytes.  I think this is the 2nd Glamorgan record, following one on south Gower.  It's a pity that I found this epiphyte after George had left us, following his visit in the morning.  Nearby Alder carr held a peculiar tiny, narrow-leaved moss with gemmae on the leaf tips, forming an extensive patch on a well-rotted log.  I'm 99% certain this is Plagiothecium latebricola. {sorry about the bad iPod photos, I wish I knew how to rotate them in Blogger}.
 

Julian and I ended the day with a visit to some wonderful damp arable fields that Nick, the owner of Ty-du Moors, manages.  We relocated the Anthoceros that Julian and George saw last autumn, and I have a specimen to measure (though it's 99% certain to be A. agrestis).  Alongside were several thalli of Phaeoceros sp. (probably P. carolinianus but needing more study), and abundant Riccia glauca and Fossombronia sp.

All in all a good day, and I hope a boost for tetrad ST17E.

Twitchable Pylaisia

Just in case anyone feels like getting their eye in for Pylaisia, there's an easily visited colony at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean.  A youngish Ash just up from the play area supports extensive patches of this uncommon (but increasing) moss, with copious sporophytes at the moment.  I'd recommend the caves too, not least because of the abundant moss around the underground lights (Eucladium, Gyroweisia and Rhynchostegiella noted, but there could well be others).

The non-bryological highlight of the day.

Aiming high...

I've got a bee in my bonnet about Knot-hole moss Zygodon forsteri.  The NBN map shows why this mega rarity isn't too ludicrous a prospect in the Forest of Dean, as there are historic records from north Devon and Worcestershire and nobody else would be fool enough to search specifically for it in FoD.  A little bit of the Forest lies in Wales, including Lady Park Wood NNR and Reddings Inclosure, and there are plenty of beech knot-holes (albeit on younger trees than in Epping Forest, the New Forest or Burnham Beeches.  Anyway, I have spent a couple of lunch breaks searching and haven't found any Z. forsteri yet, though my list of Beech epiphytes is growing nicely!

Prize among them was more Pylaisia polyantha - two patches on a massive fallen Beech branch - although some almost ripe Orthotrichum striatum was nice too.  Pylaisia was also present on a willow trunk, the first time I've seen it on that species.

Another lunchtime walk, in the Woodland Trust's Priory Grove today, revealed a base-rich Brownstones outcrop with Neckera crispa, Eucladium, Plagiochila britannica, Orthothecium intricatum and Metzgeria conjugata, as well as Heterocladium flaccidum and Fissidens pusillus on smaller sandstone rocks.  More epiphyte recording revealed Orthotrichum striatum, O. stramineum and O. tenellum on willows, but the Orthotrichum and Ulota sporophytes are still slightly too unripe for spotting scarcities to be possible. 

Pylaisia polyantha

Highlight of today's lunchtime walk was a 30x15cm patch of Pylaisia polyantha on a horizontal Hazel on the edge of Redding's Inclosure.  This is another part of my target tetrad SO51J, with different habitats to those I have looked at elsewhere in the square.  As a result, additions included conifer plantation specialists such as Plagiothecium curvifolium (plentiful and fruiting), Hypnum jutlandicum, Pohlia wahlenbergii (on a track) and potential Sematophyllum substrumulosum and Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens (both to check).

NBN map of Pylaisia (yellow squares) with new site arrowed

Pylaisia is an eastern moss in Wales, with most colonies in Monmouthshire hedgerows where it tends to occupy a niche in the upper part of trimmed hedges, just below the level smashed by flailing each year.  I have found it once in Glamorgan and three times in the Llandeilo area of Carmarthenshire, and I suspect it should be present in George's neck of the woods.  It is most easily spotted in late winter because of its copious straight fruits, although it is easy to ignore as Homalothecium sericeum unless you have it in mind.

The photo is of a Monmouthshire hedgerow colony, not today's one (because I didn't have a camera with me).