Crymlyn Burrows

A patch of Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruraliformis lacking hairpoints was something I've not come across previously. I could find any reference to varietal status, though the reduced hairpoint character seems analogous to that of S. montana var. calva. The site is comprised brownfield dune vegetation on rubble and sand behind the hard engineered sea defences. Lots of Glaucium flavum too, with close to 300 counted.

At Penllergaer, a large mound of Leucobryum glaucum that had developed at the base of a large Rhododendron at  was new for SS69, though the tree had been cut down and the regrowth provided minimal shade / humidity. It looks like this area could be lost to the expanding residential development taking place at the site. 

Syntrichia virescens

Finally an update on this Syntrichia from Llanishen in February. I have now prepared a nerve section as recommended by Nagy in the comments. This appears to confirm S. virescens new for Glamorgan. Not the best prep or photo - but compared to my usual nerve sectioning abilities I'm pretty chuffed! I'll send a voucher to Tom Blockeel.

 A small Syntrichia growing on the trunk of a street lime caught my eye as I was walking to the woodland south of Llanishen Reservoir for a quick square bash. It looks reasonably convincing for S. virescens, with toothed hairpoints and notched leaf apices, though the length of the basal cells (30-62 microns, averaging 37-45 microns) straddles the ranges given in Smith for differentiating S. virescens and S. montana. It was certainly smaller than typical montana, but as virescens would be new for VC41 I'm being cautious and seeking the opinion of others - thoughts welcome.

Flat Holm Island (summer)

I’ve been out to Flat Holm lots of times, firstly volunteering as an enthusiastic  17 year old, then following that whenever I had the chance. It is a fascinating place, packed with history and lots of gulls too. According to the information there are 20,000 nesting pairs, all toing and froing from ‘chippy ally’ in Cardiff back out to the island.

The grand total of bryophytes recorded on Flat Holm was, until recently one…or maybe it was two, either way I felt confident that even I could make a useful contribution. So I jumped at the chance to go with SEWBREC for their BioBlitz back in August 2017. 

The islands varied past land use means there is plenty of hard-core paths, tarmac, derelict buildings, concrete and limestone block structures, but there are very few – well almost no, natural water features. I have found only one persistent ‘drip’ that lasts year round, in the appropriately, if not enthusiastically  named ‘dripping cove’, where with some luck you will also find a small patch of Eucladium verticillatum hanging onto the underside of the cliff face. The very overgrown WWII defence ditch around the lighthouse also provides one of the few sheltered spots on the island capable of producing any humidity, and the limestone/soil banks are home to plenty of Fissidens taxifolius var. taxifolius and the trees and shrubs ideal habitats for any epiphytes. I’m sure that there is plenty more to find in the right season or with an expert eye, but until then here are the limited ‘highlights’ of the summertime trip;

Brachythecium populem, Barbula unguiculata, Bryum argenteum, Eucladium verticillatum, Fissidens taxifolius var. taxifolius, Hypnum lacunosum, Kindbergia praelonga, Metzgeria furcate, Orthotrichum diaphanum, Plagiomnium affine, Rhynchostegiella tenella, Rhynchostegium megapolitanum, Syntrichia ruralis subs. ruralis, Tortula moralis, Trichostomum brachydontium and Wessia brachcarpa var oliqua.

As always I was very grateful for Georges and Sam’s help with confirming some of the IDs and pointing out where I had gone hopelessly wrong,  it really is the only way to learn when you are starting out – so hats off to them again. New years resolution is to be able to confidently record in a local area without making too many mistakes.........



One small area of Eucladium verticillatum forming near a persistent drip in the 'Dripping cove'.





Flat Holm Island (image copyright of RCAHMW)









Swamp Cypress epiphytes in Gorseinon

Alfie's walk (in fact barely a shuffle these days) in the rain today was along a line of trees on Miller's Drive, which I think are Taxodium distichum (but could be Metasequoia glyptostroboides - I'll check one day). The trunks were exceptionally mossy for such a new and exposed location and included a few species you wouldn't normally expect to find on bark. I only checked a handful of trees, so I'll be back another day to see if I can add to this mildly intriguing list...
Bryum capillare
Ceratodon purpureus
Cololejeunea minutissima
Cryphaea heteromalla
Frullania dilatata
Hypnum andoi
Metzgeria furcata
Orthotrichum affine
Orthotrichum diaphanum
Orthotrichum pulchellum
Orthotrichum stramineum
Rhynchostegiella tenella
Syntrichia laevipila
Syntrichia cf. montana (bottom photo - unless laevipila can be this spiny? the rosettes looked different too, so throwing this one out for opinion really)
Syntrichia papillosa
Syntrichia ruralis var. ruralis (small and a bit odd looking, see middle pics below, so happy to be corrected)
Tortula muralis
Ulota phyllantha
Zygodon conoideus

Cwm Dulais (Pontarddulais)

This afternoon I spent 40 mins of Alfie-time looking at a small part of what is a much wider area of south-facing coal spoil in Cwm Dulais SN613036 - how many Cwm Dulais's must there be in Wales! An unremarkable total of 31 bryos were recorded, along with what I'm suspecting must be Galium parisiense, which was locally frequent. I'm not sure if G. parisiense has been recorded on coal spoil before, but it's clearly well adapted to it and would be worth checking for on other tips. Bryologiocally, there was nothing of great note, but it was an interesting assemblage all the same, with frequent Archidium alternifolium (photo 3), Homalothecium lutescens, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum (photos 3-4) and occasional Calliergonella lindbergii, Didymodon ferrugineus, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (photo 4) & Trichostomum crispulum. Nearby, Fontinalis antipyretica and F. squamosa were noted growing side-by-side in the river.

Sunset bryologising

Yesterday evening, whilst photographing the sunset from the artificial promontory of Salthouse Point slipway (SS52349582), I came across a colony of what appears to be Syntrichia montana. var. calva. Scattered tufts were locally frequent amongst patchy, moss-rich vegetation growing on Limestone gravel and I estimated the colony extended over an area approximately 10m x 10m, though no other areas were looked at. From what I could make out in the gloom, S. ruralis var. ruraliformis was more abundant (or possibly just more conspicuous) in the community and there looked to be a little S. r. var. ruralis for good measure. Confusingly, there were also a few shoots of intermediate types, so I'm not quite sure exactly what is going on out there! I'll try and get out in better light at some point to try and sort out the Syntrichia taxa at this interesting little site.

There is one other record of Syntrichia montana. var. calva in Wales, a short account of which can be viewed HERE

Fruiting ruraliformis at Whiteford

A random stop at what looked potential habitat to try and find Mibora away from the now tiny remnant population at the regular site proved to be unsuccessful, but I was surprised at the sheer abundance of fruiting Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (above left). The new Atlas states that capsules are rare, as evidenced by there being no Carms records and just 1 Pembs record. Associates at Whiteford included S. r. var. ruralis (not fruiting) along with scattered plants of Hornungia petraea (above right). A fruiting shoot is shown below left and leaves of both vars. from the site are shown below right.

Tricky Syntrichia

A clump of Syntrichia, which was sparsely fruiting, confused me until I pulled it apart and realised there were in fact three different Syntrichia taxa all growing together. The sample was collected from the very mossy roof of Pendine's Sunbeam Diner, whilst balancing on a fence to get access to the lower tiles; not forgetting to grab a few pics while I was there! S. ruralis var. ruraliformis was very obviously different and I assumed the rest, including the fruiting material, was going to be montana (which looked to be the dominant species). But, in fact the capsules belonged to shoots of ruralis var. ruralis, which is said to fruit infrequently. Under the microscope the leaves can't really be confused, but looking at the clump both macroscopically and with a hand lens the picture was puzzling, with a range of apparent intermediate shoots present. Single-species colonies are normally straight forward, but I've not encountered this three-way association previously - at least not knowingly!

Above: Fruiting shoots and leaves taken from fruiting shoots.

Below: Leaves taken from non-fruiting shoots of S. montana [NB. the field of view is the same size for all microscope shots]

Broughton SS49B

Twlc Point, Broughton Bay

From one shy-fruiting pleurocarp to another, this time Homalothecium lutescens (photos below) growing on the north-facing sandy slopes above Twlc Point.

A little further west along the coast, the salt-sprayed Limestone cliffs at Foxhole Point supported a disappointingly impoverished bryoflora in comparison with that on South Gower. Tortella flavovirens was the most common species, growing on rock as well as soil, with the most frequent associates being Amblystegium serpens and Didymodon tophaceus.

Whilst the tarmac in the caravan park was more productive than the cliffs, with species of interest including Dialytrichia mucronata (photo below) growing amongst Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruralis, along with a little ssp. ruralifomis (bottom left in lower photo), I still only managed to raise the tetrad total to 51.

Waungron, Grovesend

I found some Didymodon fallax in fruit during this morning's Alfie-time, at a small coal spoil site (SN599020) near home that has long been overgrown with dense mat of Calliergonella cuspidata. The fruiting plants, found growing on a crust of soil on a mound of broken concrete (photo below), had leaves considerably more recurved than the bulk of plants noted elsewhere at the site. Although the leaves and reddish colour of the lower leaves suggested ferrugineus (a species for which capsules are unrecorded in Britain), closer examination confirmed it was indeed just fallax. Elongate cells on the adaxial side of the costa ruled out insulanus, although I must confess these cells weren't as defined as illustrated (photo below).

There were no species of any real note, but Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruraliformis and fruiting Dicranella varia provided some local interest.