Pal y Cwrt pit stop

Last Saturday we went for a drive over Mynydd Du and during a pit stop at Pal y Cwrt in the hope of a migrant Ring Ouzel (none, but lots of Wheatears in song) I noticed a lovely patch of Antennaria dioica, which was lf in a 6m x 4m area at SN67681813. I made a very quick list of associates and grabbed a small sample with a mix of liverworts and some fruiting Weissia for checking, from the location arrowed above, these being: Ctenidium molluscum, Ditrichum gracile, Encalypta streptocarpa, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Lophozia excisa, Plagiochila porelloides, Thymus polytrichus, Tortella tortuosa and Weissia brachycarpa var. obliqua. My sample also contained shoots that look very much like Bryum kunzei, which is not known from Carmarthensire, so I'll send the sample to Tom, unless Sam would like to take a look first.

Glamorgan Rare & Scarce List

Below is an update based on Pescott (2016) of Nationally Rare & Nationally Scarce taxa recorded in Glamorgan. To date there have been 7 NR and 60 NS and for quick future reference to this list I have added a 'Designations' label.

There are an addition 92 taxa that are County Rare (3 or fewer tetrads) and 70 County Scarce (4-10 tetrads). These aren't listed as the lists should shrink as better coverage is achieved.

Nationally Rare (7)
Bryum marratii
Cephaloziella calyculata
Daltonia splachnoides
Fissidens curvatus
Habrodon perpusillus
Southbya tophacea
Weissia levieri
Nationally Scarce (60)
Abietinella abietina
Aloina ambigua
Amblyodon dealbatus
Amblystegium confervoides
Amblystegium radicale
Anthoceros agrestis
Brachythecium salebrosum
Bryum canariense
Bryum intermedium
Bryum kunzei
Bryum riparium
Bryum torquescens
Bryum warneum
Campyliadelphus elodes
Campylophyllum calcareum
Campylopus subulatus
Colejeunea rossettiana
Didymodon acutus
Distichium inclinatum
Drepanocladus sendtneri
Entosthodon muhlenbergii
Entosthodon pulchellus
Ephemerum sessile
Fissidens crispus
Fissidens rivularis
Fissidens rufulus
Fossombronia caespitiformis
Grimmia orbicularis
Gymnostomum calcareum
Gymnostomum viridulum
Hamatocaulis vernicosus
Herzogiella seligeri
Heterocladium wulfbergii
Hygroamblystegium humile
Leptodontium gemmascens
Lophocolea bispinosa (Alien)
Microbryum starckeanum
Moerckia flotoviana
Petalophyllum ralfsii
Philonotis caespitosa
Plasteurhynchium striatulum
Platyhypnidium lusitanicum
Pleurochaete squarrosa
Pohlia flexuosa
Pseudocalliergon lycopodioides
Pylaisia polyantha
Racomitrium canescens
Rhytidiadelphus subpinnatus
Riccia huebeneriana
Scapania cuspiduligera
Scapania paludicola
Scopelophila cataractae
Seligeria acutifolia
Seligeria donniana
Seligeria pusilla
Sematophyllum substrumulosum
Tortella inclinata
Tortula atrovirens
Ulota calvescens
Weissia rutilans

Weissia levieri (Levier's Beardless-moss) Rhossili 16-Feb-2011

Home tetrad

Remnant areas of coal spoil at Melin Mynach / Toyoda factory

I’ve still not done any square-bashing this year, though I’ve made a few short revisits to sites close to home, which on Saturday included a 40 minute session at a remnant fragment of a former coal spoil tip by the Toyoda factory (SS595998), about 1km from the house. A total of 69 taxa have so far been recorded at the site, 41 occurring directly on spoil, though my visits here have always been casual, so undoubtedly there's more to discover. The assemblage in the area I looked at on Saturday included locally frequent Didymodon fallax, Fissidens adianthoides and Weissia brachycarpa var. obliqua (photos below), suggestive that the spoil there is mildly basic, though other calcicoles generally occurred at lower frequencies. Surprisingly this short visit added five more species to my home tetrad taking the total to 127.

Interesting Weissia

Thanks to Sam, first for correcting one of my id's in the post below, then secondly for suggesting I check my specimen, it looks like this specimen from Julain's garden is either sterilis or multicapsularis. The multi-fruited shoots are only apparent once the specimen is dissected and not all shoots are fertile or multi-fruited. The full graticule shows 2.5mm, so this shoot is 6.1mm in height.

Miniature garden flora

A 1" patch of garden soil with Weissia controversa, Barbula unguiculata, Ephemerum minutissimum & Fissidens taxifolius.

Some casual recording in Julian Woodman's garden surprisingly produced eight species additional to the 170 already listed for ST18B. Arable/garden weeds would appear not to have been well sampled in this square (as I suspect is the case across much of the county) as most additions were from this group. It's always worth exploring friends and neighbours gardens when the opportunity arises as gardens can give a good boost to tetrad lists in non-arable areas.

Identified from this image by Sam as 
Weissia cf longifolia, but to be checked...

Ephemerum minutissimum - spores checked

Dicranella schreberiana

I called into Cornelly allotments for a very brief stop on the way to Julian's, in a failed attempt to take SS88A over the 60 mark, bit did record some nice patches of Microbryum davallianum growing amongst a carpet of Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum and Lunularia cruciata, so not a wasted 10 minutes.

Afon Afan, Pontrhydyfen

Yesterday a revisit to a site I'd looked at back in 2011 gave me the opportunity to check a short section of riverbank, which was largely modified by concrete and limestone blocks beneath the old bridge abutments. A small patch of Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens was probably the highlight (photos above), growing alongside Weissia controversa var. densifolia, the latter visible in the second photo as a bright green strip running between the large metal pipe and the colony of B. ferruginascens.

Schistidium platyphyllum (two images below-left) was frequent on the concrete and rocks that get periodically inundated, associates including Hygroamblystegium tenax and Hygrohypnum luridum  (two images below-right).

Rare fungus on Weissia multicapsularis

There aren't many rarer British mosses than Weissia multicapsularis, as it has fewer than 5 known colonies in the World!  Its first Welsh record came from Dingestow in 1981 (when I was too young to appreciate mosses) and it was a thorn in my side, with 15 failed attempts at relocation, until I found my own colony about 1km from the original site in 2008.  I revisited the colony this afternoon and tall, brownish, short-leaved Weissia are frequent over the same area as I marked in 2008, although I completely failed to find any sporophytes to confirm the ID.  The site seems utterly mundane - a steep bank in improved pasture - but also supports Acaulon muticum, Weissia squarrosa and lots of a small Fissidens that looks likely to be F. crispus.  I suspect it has never been overly fertilised because it is too steep, and a combination of a SW-aspect, grazing and slumping prevent takeover by vascular plants.

Anyway, one patch of Weissia had a little orange fungus growing at its base.  I figured that a fungus growing on Weissia multicapsularis could be pretty rare, so I carefully collected the fungus and 3 stems of the moss for identification.  It looked rather ill-defined compared with most Octospora that I have seen, perhaps because of the membranaceous margin (something mentioned on the excellent Bryoparasitic Pezizales site http://www.octospora.de/Ltuberculatella.htm).  Under the microscope it had remarkably lobed asci containing 8 strongly warted spores.  A check on the Pezizales website suggested the only fungus recorded so far from Weissia species is Lamprospora tuberculatella, which has spores that are identical to my specimen.  From what I can see on-line, there are no previous British records, so a very rare moss may support an even rarer (in British terms) fungus.

Gwendraeth Fawr

An area of M23b-S5 transition on the floodplain of the Gwendraeth Fawr had a strong population of Amblystegium radicale in an otherwise bryo-poor marsh community. I've only seen this species a few times before and never growing as well or as erect as this, and with the largest leaves up to 1.7mm long (Smith gives max. as 1.4mm), confirmation or otherwise would be appreciated. The narrow, but long decurrent leaf bases seem to be key.

Willows along the adjacent disused canal/railway (now mostly wet woodland) supported locally frequent patches of fruiting Homalia trichomanoides, with occasional curly shoots of Sanionia uncinata intermixed.

Finally, an area of tightly grazed turf on what appears to be the remnant of an old tip was largely dominated by a Weissia  (photo below right) that had a few clusters of young sporophytes. The presence of frequent Bryum pallescens (with old and develping sporophytes), perhaps suggests this might be W. controversa var. densifolia, but the expanse of Weissia was more of a crust than the dense cushions I've seen at other sites. Again opinion would be welcome, but I suspect it will simply have to be logged as Weissia sp. A non-fruiting and indeterminate Cephaloziella (photo below left) was the only other frequent bryo at this interesting little area.

Weissia controversa var. densifolia

I rather like the way this colony is enveloping the base of a zinc-coated chain link fence on the boundary of Morriston golf course. The map below shows the number of records is slowly increasing and I'm sure it's fairly widespread if localised. It's worth checking poor soils under this type of fencing, under roadside crash barriers and drip zones under zinc roofing, these all being situations I have encountered the species.

Another fruitless search for Tongue-leaf Copper-moss

Today I had another look for the Scopelophila at Six Pits Branch and a very brief look at Atlantic Close. It is really frustrating me as I cannot find it despite having Sam's 10-fig grid refs. I refuse to believe it's gone as there are sizeable areas of ground that are covered in Weissia controversa var. densifolia, along with the Brachytheciastrum velutinum, Cephaloziella spp. etc also noted by Sam. Unfortunately the grid ref takes you to an area that is dense impenetrable scrub, so I'm guessing there's something up with either the gps reading or the calibration of the Google map (stick SS67919668 into grabagridref and you'll see what I mean) - perhaps I should have used my gps to relocate. The Atlantic Close sites look less favourable for refinding as these are now both heavily scrubbed over and there's a lot of leaf litter. I'm thinking perhaps I'll be better off looking for a colony of my own next time I'm down that way...

W. controversa var. densifolia growing below galvanized fencing,
though it also grows extensively on the metalliferous soils in this
area along with Bryum pallescens

Possible Weissia rutilans

On the way back from a site visit to Mewslade today I stopped off in SS48T at Scurlage (a square dominated by arable and little else) in an attempt to add to the paltry 29 species recorded there. I grabbed a sample from a fruiting patch of Weissia with seemingly plane leaf margins that was growing on a bare patch of loamy soil in the centre of the track amongst low grasses. Expecting it to be W. brachycarpa var brachycarpa, I was surprised to find it had a rudimentary peristome when I pulled an operculum off first one then two capsules. The leaves are heavily coated in crud and few seem a little inrolled, so very much a provisional id for now. I'll post some pics later for comments.