Rhiw Forgan

The Alun Valley area is the gift that keeps on giving...

Yesterday we walked to the top of Rhiw Forgan to see the fire service operating a robo-cutter on a large area of dense gorse and Molinia. I'd not been to this part of the site before, and an area of limestone outcrops and short calcareous grassland (SS893761) immediately grabbed my attention. It certainly didn't disappoint, with large patches of Entodon concinnus and Thuidium assimile, and not far away numerous small patches of Racomitrium canescens. I checked the latter two species under the microscope and both look pretty convincing.

 

 

 

 

It turns out that CCW also recorded T. assimile from this same habitat patch (in 1995), but it is a new subsite for Entodon and a new site for R. canescens (though Sam has recorded it in the adjacent tetrad to the west, at Merthyr Mawr).

What other goodies await at this site? There must be plenty.

Morlais Hill

I arrived half an hour early before meeting the cameraman for a film about Cwm Taf Fechan, so popped up on to the limestone of Morlais Castle Hill to look for bryophytes.  I hadn't looked at this area before and had high hopes, but time was against me and I didn't get far.  Between SO045097 and SO046098 I noted the following more interesting species: Entosthodon obtusus on vertical clay by the footpath with Calypogeia fissa; Fissidens incurvus, Pleuridium subulatum and Tortula modica on anthills; abundantly fruiting Tortella tortuosa; Bryum pallens and Thuidium assimile (photo below) in turf by a flush; and Conocephalum salebrosum on damp limestone.

Barry, my dataset doesn't have any of the 2006 bryo survey data made by Graham and me; have you got it all from SEWBReC or BRC?  Things like Riccia beyrichiana, R subbifurca, Seligeria acutifolia, S pusilla etc.