Mining for moss

Visits to three Ceredigion lead mines last Friday produced several nice things.  I'll start with 3 showy species: Racomitrium elongatum, Tetraplodon mnioides and Hedwigia stellata.  The Racomitrium is pretty frequent in the Cambrian Mountains and its long reflexed hairpoints are a good pointer (before microscope checking).  Tetraplodon is present on most Mid Wales mines, where it grows on scats and bones.  Hedwigia stellata is surprisingly sparsely distributed in Ceredigion, and the two tufts I saw were on tarmac - the first time I've seen it on this substrate.

 

Prize for smallest and grottiest goes to Ditrichum plumbicola and D. lineare.  The two colonies of D. plumbicola were both "new" - the 15th & 16th sites for this species in Mid Wales - in part because nobody had specifically looked for it on those sites.  The D. lineare was also "new", and was unusual because it's generally found on natural sites in Wales rather than on mines.  Ditrichum plumbicola has blunt-tipped leaves and plane margins, whereas the D. lineare has acute tips and slightly recurved margins.

 

Prize for rarest may go to D. plumbicola, but with a bit of luck I'll be able to confirm that a colony of very toothy Cephaloziella is C. nicholsonii.  This would be only the 5th Welsh locality for this British endemic.  It was growing at the foot of an old wheel pit wall, and it's interesting to note that the first Ceredigion colony was on a wall on Cwmystwyth mine (found by David Holyoak).

I'll add some microscope photos of the Cephaloziella soon. 

Lovely! Splachnum

Last December as I stumbled about in low cloud and gale force winds trying to find some dip-wells at Waun Fach in the Black Mountains, I came across several scattered bits of sheep dung sitting on bare peat, which had a few small patches of infertile Splachnum sphaericum.  As I have never seen this species with sporophytes I brought a sample home and left it in the greenhouse over winter (wife not too pleased!) to see if I could grow it on - four months later and I have a turd almost completely covered in moss with lots of nice sporophytes - I am at Waun Fach next week so will take it back home.   This appears to be first (or at least first modern) record for the Black Mountains.  I think this species is still bracketed for Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, but hopefully it might turn up there soon with Waun Fach being only a few kms from the boundaries of both these counties.  

I think the only other places I have seen Splachnum sphaericum in south Wales is at Mynydd Llangatwg (several times, although seems much less frequent there now than it was 15 years ago) and near Ystradfellte.  

Recently I was sorting through some photos of archaeological sites and came across one I took last year of a cairn on the common above Cwm Cadlan (in RCT, but the old V-c 42).  Although situated in a very exposed and dry spot, in the hollow of the cairn is a small patch of Tetraplodon mnioides.  Presumably a bird coughed up a pellet onto the small mat of moss, which holds just enough moisture to allow the Tetraplodon to grow - probably always worth having a search around these bird perching areas on the moors. 

The other Welsh Splach

Whilst on the subject of Splachnaceae, it is always worth checking areas of scree in case of carcasses with Tetraplodon mnioides.  This is the primary (perhaps the only) habitat of this moss in south Wales (VCC 35, 42 and 44) but in mid Wales (46, and just creeping over the border into NE Carms) and the north it is far more abundant on lead mines.

And this is what it looks like with sporophytes - photo from N Wales.

Plus a fruiting Splachnum sphaericum from Snowdonia.

Actually, there is one other Welsh Splach - a single Snowdonia record of T. angustatus.  One we can hope for on next summer's BBS meeting.