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

Cwmnantlleucu Quarry

On my way up to SN70P yesterday evening I passed the quarry, which was quiet, so I parked in the entrance area and had a quick look at the easily accessible rock exposure. Despite everything being bone dry and caked in dust, making id challenging, species such as Amphidium mougeotii (green cushions on images below) and Racomitrium aciculare with Diplophyllum albicans (the extensive dark grey crud on the images below) could almost be described as growing luxuriantly. I still have a box of dirt-covered samples to go through over the weekend, but there appeared to be nothing particularly unusual or unexpected. One observation of interest on the dirt below the rock face was fruiting Pohlia wahlenbergii var. wahlenbergii, which is said to be rare (photo below).

The large oak on the right side of the top photo had an interesting looking pleurocarp growing on an accumulation of powdery dirt in the fork of the trunk. I was convinced this was going to be something I'd not seen before, but in the end all I could make it was odd-looking Brachythecium rutabulum [in fact Sciuro-hypnum plumosum - see comments]. Is there something I may have overlooked?

Allt Goch (NBGW)

The red clayey banks of the stream running down off the appropriately named Allt Goch, supported a good suite of lowland riparian species including some good patches of Fissidens celticus (photos above), the most frequent associates being Fissidens bryoides var. bryoides, Atrichum undulatum and Pellia epiphylla. The bridge upstream supported some intense fruiting patches of Sciuro-hypnum populeum (photo below) along with a good selection of other fruiting pleurocarps including Hygrohypnum luridum.

Mini Brachythecium

I found a large patch of Brachythecium populeum on a Hazel branch at Carmel today on which all of the sporophytes were half the size of the usual ones on that species.  The leaves etc were relatively small too.  I did wonder whether it might be Rhynchostegiella litorea, but the unbeaked capsule indicates it isn't.  Very odd!

SN60G (Felindre) Note, I must check the records first!

Yesterday I only had a little spare time so decided to give SN60G (which was on 55 species) a boost to help take it over the 70 mark. Stupidly I never checked what species had been recorded other than I knew I’d looked at some coal spoil in the nw of the square, so I headed to Felindre and ended up spending 15 minutes by the river and 30 minutes in the church (again in the rain). I couldn’t believe it when I got back and found that Sam had already done the church! Of the 400ha to choose from in SN60G, I had to choose the same 0.2 ha! However, it did give the opportunity to compare results. Needless to say Sam recorded more, 15 more in fact, although I was pleased to find that I managed to add a further 7, the best of these probably being Sciuro-hypnum populeum.

The tetrad total now stands at a respectable 83, the church total of 50 accounting for a large part of this, 5m of river bank and 0.2 ha of coal spoil the rest. As the squares get ticked off, it’s sobering to think that three casual visits to less than 0.1% of a tetrad (yellow patches below) can constitute a ‘completed’ square (i.e. a nominal 60 spp exceeded).

Well as suggested I'm now venturing into SN60 when I get the odd opportunity and my target is to complete this hectad over the winter. Here are the tetrad totals as it stands...