Aberthaw shingle

A few spare hours on Tuesday took me to the shingle beach at West Aberthaw - the draw being that this tetrad (ST06D) had no previous bryo records despite obvious potential.

Things started well with Scorpiurium circinatum and fruiting Rhynchostegium megapolitanum on a stony bank by the car park, as well as a mystery Bryum sp. (photo below - not sure if this is B. kunzei or another member of the caespiticium group - any comments welcome).

The broad leaf of Rhynchostegium megapolitanum

Scorpiurium circinatum

West of the car park, an area of ruderal vegetation behind the shingle beach was awash with small, fruiting acrocarps, including Microbryum davallianum, M. rectum, Tortula protobryoides and Phascum cuspidatum.

Microbryum rectum

Microbryum davallianum

Microbryum davallianum spores

Tortula protobryoides

Further west still, the back of the shingle beach was quite well vegetated, the bryophytes including Aloina aloides (fruiting), Tortella nitida, lots of Scorpiurium and some more M. rectum.

Tortella nitida on old rope among shingle

This left me a little time to try and add some epiphytes in the north of the tetrad, but these were few and far between - I couldn't even find any Cryphaea. Of more interest was yet more Scorpiurium in Gileston Churchyard and small cushions of Gymnostomum aeruginosum on the mortar of a railway bridge.

Many of the species mentioned above have their Glamorgan headquarters on the South Gower limestones and few records from further east - but this is partly due to the Vale being badly under-recorded. Lots of work to do here!

Llandaff Cathedral

If a bryologist were visiting my home tetrad (ST17P), the first place they would probably head would be Llandaff Cathedral and the attached graveyard. It might seem odd, then, that I'd never done any mossing there until Saturday. This was because Barry had paid a visit in 2013. However, Barry's visit was quite fleeting so it seemed worth another look, and I didn't have access to the car so my options were limited to somewhere close to home.

I was particularly hoping to relocate two calcicoles recorded by Barry which I'd never seen: Scorpiurium circinatum and Didymodon umbrosus.

The Scorpiurium proved easy to find and was fairly frequent around the base of the cathedral walls on the northern, southern and eastern aspects. It also occurred on some low walls nearby, as in the pic below.

Scorpiurium circinatum

The Didymodon was a different matter - I thought I'd failed to find it, but on checking my samples at home I did find a couple of tiny stems which could, perhaps, be this species - see photos below. It looks fairly similar to Barry's photo from 2013, but it seems to lack the basal hyaline cells mentioned in Smith so I think it must be something else (not just a wretched Schistidium I hope!).

The cathedral walls also added two species for the tetrad: Tortella tortuosa and Pseudocrossidium revolutum.

I then had a look at the graveyard, which added eight more species for the tetrad including Cirriphyllum piliferum, Didymodon tophaceus, Brachythecium populeum and Homalothecium lutescens.

Llandaff cathedral graveyard

The most surprising find, though, was a small patch of fruiting Zygodon conoideus on a sloping grave (gemmae checked microscopically). Has anyone else seen this species on stone?

Grave supporting Zygodon conoideus

Zygodon conoideus on gravestone, mixed with Frullania dilatata

Finally, this Schistidium was growing on a semi-shaded wall top near the cathedral. The leaves have short, toothed hair points and the whole plant is quite large (stems to 5cm). I'd have thought this was apocarpum rather than crassipilum based on the short hair points, but the leaves aren't falcate. Any suggestions welcome, thanks.