Crawling through conifers

An NRW project to restore a coniferised peatland at Abercregan took me deep into Hipkin territory on 9th February.  I'm afraid I didn't bother doing any general recording, particularly when Barry kindly emailed me the 120+ strong tetrad list that included Glyncorrwg and the Abercregan peatland, but I did make a few additions...

Most of my time was spent documenting the diversity and abundance of bryophytes growing in deep-ploughed Molinia under a poor crop of Spruce: an activity that involved crawling on hands and knees under low branches, and getting spruce twigs tangled in my hair and down my back.  There was an impressive bryomass and a reasonable bryodiversity, but the predominant species were Diplophyllum albicans, Hypnum jutlandicum and Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans.  A few patches of Sphagnum rubellum, locally abundant Lophozia incisa, some Cephalozia connivens on peaty ditch sides, and some Spruce trunks plastered with L. ventricosa (as well as Diplophyllum and Colura) were probably the most interesting things I saw on the peatland.

I descended towards Glyncorrwg through a pine plantation and took a quick look at a very mossy Pine that sported a single patch of Sanionia uncinata (new for the tetrad) on one twig and several patches of the oceanic lichen Hypotrachyna laevigata (new for the hectad according to NBN).  A little further on there was a fallen spruce snagged in the canopy, with a very nice mossy trunk; a quick scan revealed fruiting Sematophyllum substrumulosum at 430m altitude, way higher than any previous British record.  I kept Daltonia in mind, but failed on that front.

Sematophyllum substrumulosum season

I stopped to check a pile of decaying conifer logs in some very ordinary mixed woodland 2km west of Dingestow this afternoon and found some nice ripe Sematophyllum substrumulosum.  Try as I might I couldn't get the camera to focus properly on it.  Still, it's clearly the season to check local plantations for this increasing moss.

substrum?

I enjoyed an extended lunch break at Craig y Parc wood, near Creigiau, today, with the intention of topping up ST08V. I did some recording before Christmas in calcareous woodland elsewhere in this tetrad, so the fact that Craig y Parc was mostly dull as ditchwater - dry acidic mixed woodland with low bryophyte diversity - didn't matter too much as many of the species were at least new for the tetrad.

Interest was greater in the eastern part of the wood where there was a small stream which must have had some basic influence, with a nice range of species including a large frilly-edged form of Aneura pinguis, a small patch of Hookeria lucens, Pellia endiviifolia and Cratoneuron filicinum.

I checked numerous conifer stumps with Sematophyllum substrumulosum in mind, but all I found was Hypnum, small amounts of Lophocolea heterophylla and one patch of Riccardia chamaedrys...until one of the last stumps I checked revealed a patch of what I think is the real deal...it seems to have all the hallmarks (apart from the brownish leaf base): short red setae, long-beaked capsules, nerveless leaves with enlarged alar cells. Surely this has to be it? Confirmation (or not) would be much appreciated!