Using water chemistry to define ecological preferences within the moss genus Scorpidium

Sorry i just cant get the text to be normal so blog post is short ! 

Just sharing this link to a new paper as its based on data from Wales. 

Link to article click here

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03736687.2019.1603416

another little look at Cefn Bryn

I spent an hour and a half on Cefn Bryn in the rain on Saturday and recorded 53 species in an area of flushed ground to the north of Arthur's Stone.  Kurzia pauciflora was more frequent here than I've seen elsewhere on Gower, typically growing through mounds of Sphagnum papillosum. Amongst eight Sphagnum, tenellum was the only species of any note.

Kurzia pauciflora

I only came across one base-enriched flush, where there were small quantities of Palustriella falcata and Sarmentypnum exannulatum mixed in the short turf, which held frequent Campylium stellatum and Scorpidium cossonii.

Scorpidium cossonii

Grimmia trichophylla & Racomitrium heterostichum were present on several of the rocks in the area, surprisingly this being the first time the latter has been recorded on the Gower peninsula.

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum mid-leaf section

Grimmia trichophylla

Brown moss confusion

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.

Brecon Beacons Pit Stop

 We stopped briefly in a lay-by below Storey Arms - actually an old quarry (SS971208) -  during a journey across the Brecon Beacons on Sunday afternoon. The occurrence of small patches of Philonotis calcarea and a Scorpidium, which at the time I assumed was S. revolvens, indicated a significant amount of base-flushing. Also in the vicinity were Preissia quadrata, Ctenidium molluscum, Gymnostomum aeruginosum, Tortella bambergeri and some impressive Asplenium viride, all indicating a calcium influence.

Scorpidium in small quarry, Brecon Beacons

Asplenium viride in small quarry, Brecon Beacons

It was fortunate that I took a small sample of the Scorpidium because after checking leaf cell structure under the microscope it appears to be S. cossonii. Once upon a time they were both Drepanocladus revolvens!

Porose, mid-leaf cells of Scorpidium with blunt (transverse) ends

The wet rocks also had small amounts of Blindia acuta and Empetrum nigrum was scattered in heathy areas above the quarry. Fascinating to think that this collection of Boreo-arctic montane species is only few miles away from an exemplary collection of hyper-oceanic species in the Upper Nedd and Mellte headstreams.

Blindia acuta in small quarry, Brecon Beacons

Blindia acuta leaf showing characteristic alar cells

Slime, samples and Scorpidium

Myself and Jon Graham have been back out all weekend completing our Scorpidium sampling that we started last year. Our aim is to sample water chemistry from the three Scorpidium species (revolvens, scorpioides and cossonii) to illustrate the variation in chemistry preferred by each species......anyhow more on that later in the year.

• George - we sampled your site at Story Arms - very useful thanks ! 
• Sam -your maps were really helpful thanks again

So below for fun is a picture of the chemical samples, before they get sent of to the BGS labs. All the data will be availble when we are finished (we also have about 25 species specific samples from Jan 2015).

water chemistry samples from Scorpidium before delivery to BGS labs

Slime:

At our last site we saw some really nice spring domes, great for water samples etc. One however had the strangest slime coming from it. It was slightly opaque, and I have taken a sample but have no idea what it is? Anyone seen anything like this before? or know anyone who would want a sample in the post !

nice looking spring mound with Scorpidium revolvens (note slime in the middle)

close up of the slime !

Cefn Bryn springs and flushes

area of basic flush at SS497899, the surrounding area was otherwise acidic

I took Alfie for a short walk around a randomly selected spring head on Cefn Bryn yesterday evening and found Scorpdium cossonii and Philonotis calcarea to be locally frequent is a small flushed area. This is now the third site on the common where I have encountered these two species and I've hardly looked elsewhere. Google aerials show there are many similar looking springs and flushes all around Cefn Bryn; how many have some form basic influence will be interesting to discover. I'm sure in time these two species will prove to be a little more widespread than our records suggest.

Scorpidium cossonii & Campylium stellatum

Scorpidium cossonii & bright green patches of Philonotis calcarea

Distribution of Scorpidium cossonii in Glamorgan

Merthyr Common

I had a wonderful day out on the northern bit of Merthyr Common yesterday, exploring the crags and shaly overhangs above the Nant Morlais in SO0709.

 

A box full of samples still  to go through, but highlights so far include Hygrohypnum ochraceum (in the stream), Bartramia pomiformis (abundant along a 30m section of crag), Preissia quardata (single patch only), Scorpidium cossonii (with large Aneura growing through it, see pic), Polytrichastrum alpinum (frequent over a large area) and Palustriella commutata. Evidently, there is a fair bit of base enrichment here.

Preissia quadrata

Scorpidium cossonii and large Aneura

Bartramia pomiformis

Another nice surprise was this small clump of Fir Clubmoss, which I missed when I carried out a botanical survey here for the Merthyr Tydfil SINCs project back in 2007.

Fir Clubmoss

I'll blog again if anything else of interest turns up in the remaining samples.

Bryophytes in the snow

I wasn't expecting to see any bryophytes at all when I took the kids up to Storey Arms to play in the snow on Saturday. However, the streams and flushes were free of ice and snow, and a few hastily grabbed tufts of moss provided some nice species I don't see very often (or at all) down my way: Fissidens osmundoides, Campylium stellatum and this rather stunning Scorpidium revolvens, as well as the more familiar Ctenidium molluscum and Philonotis fontanum.

Scorpidium revolvens

These were just above the lay-by on the lower slopes of Fan Fawr (SN976203). Graham - I assume this area has been well covered given its accessibility?

Henrhyd, Mynydd-y-Gwair

The small gulley marks the Glamorgan-Carmarthenshire boundary (see
green line below), with Mynydd-y-Bettws windfarm on the Carms side

This afternoon I spent a good 1½ hours around 320m asl in the little bit of SN61Q that is part of Glamorgan (yellow area above), which proved more fruitful than I was expecting due to a good chunk being base-rich. My highlight was a 60m² patch of Philonotis calcarea (the red patch), the most prominent associates including Palustriella falcata¸ Anagallis tenella and Campylium stellatum. Also there were some lovely wefts of Archidium alternifolium on the adjacent heath growing along with species such as Scorpidium revolvens, Scapania irrigua, Riccardia chamedryfolia, Aneura pinguis and Didymodon fallax.

Philonotis calcarea

Scorpidium revolvens

Archidium alternifolium