An hour and half looking at
Sphagnum on Cefn Bryn yesterday afternoon turned up no surprises on the bog-moss front, with
squarrosum being the most interesting of the nine species noted (new for SS49) records indicating that this is a localised species on the Gower peninsula. Best of the incidentals were a few small patches of
Lophozia incisa on streamside peat, plus a small basic flush with frequent
Philonotis calcarea which held a confusing mix of brown mosses that I am still trying to fathom. There is definitely
Sarmentypnum exannulatum and
Scorpidium cossonii, but there is also either
Palustriella falcata or
Hamatocaulis vernicosus, or as I suspect both! I’ll have a closer look again at my specimens when I get a chance, but here are a photos of a few shoots I looked at last night. The sward was heavily poached and there were no decent stands of anything, making an intriguing puzzle of poorly grown plants.
Here are some images of shoots what looked like, and keyed out, as
vernicosus. Nice broad shoots, though the leaf bases were't especially red on any of the material I collected (just a small sample). None of the leaves had differentiated alar cells and most were obviously pleated when wet, though not as strongly as in
falcata. Costa weak beyond mid-point, ending at around 2/3.
These last two images were from another sample at the same location, the leaves being more strongly pleated and with differentiated alar cells. Though I could not detect and small leafy outgrowths on the stem during a quick search, I'm suspecting this might be
falcata - one for later...
Thoughts on any of the above welcome.
The non-bryological highlight was a lovely clump of
Clavulinopsis fusiformis [thanks for the ID Sam] in U3
Agrostis curtisii grassland on the ridge of Cefn Bryn.
