Wern Ddu (again) and Rudry

I made a trip to Wern-ddu yesterday to have a look for that bluetail, but on arrival there was already quite a crowd of assembled birders - some of whom cheerfully told me that they'd been there for several hours without seeing it. I lack the patience for that kind of thing, so quickly left to check out the much more easily twitched Fissidens limbatus found by Barry a few days earlier (thanks Barry...and you weren't exaggerating when you said it was tiny).

Fissidens limbatus

On the way there was a tempting pile of limestone rubble and spoil from past quarrying at Cefn Onn, which held plenty of (putative!) Leiocolea badensis and some more tiny Fissidens which will probably prove to be limbatus. A rotten log was covered in Nowellia, which might be new for ST18. As Barry mentioned, this north-facing slope is very mossy indeed and will surely reward a more thorough survey.

Probable Leiocolea badensis

Nowellia curvifolia

My main aim of the day was to look for Leptodontium flexifolium at Rudry Common, found here by  Roy Perry in 1974. I'm pleased to report that it is still grows here 43 years on!

Leptodontium flexifolium

Leptodontium flexifolium with deciduous stubby leaves at shoot tips

Leptodontium flexifolium habitat

It proved to be quite frequent on thin peaty soil around sandstone outcrops, mostly growing under slight overhangs. The main associate was Ceratodon purpureus (the overwhemingly dominant bryophyte here) with smaller quantities of Polytrichum piliferum and Campylopus introflexus. It looks like the whole site gets burnt regularly, which perhaps aids the persistence of the Leptodontium. This tetrad (ST18Y) should now be over 60 species.

Wisley Wonderland

During a visit to Wisley Royal Horticultural Society Garden during a pre-Christmas family get-together, we came across a wall constructed from lumps of tufa outside the alpine greenhouses. The range of calcicoles (clearly long-established) was quite impressive and I was surprised to see a few species outside of their normal range, e.g. Preissia quadrata, Tortella tortuosa and Leicolea badensis which I guess will have been introduced with the rock. Several of the more interesting species of these aren't shown on the NBN and Preissia appears to be unrecorded in Surrey. Whilst this is a largely introduced community, those species that are thriving would seem worthy of documenting.

Tranch Pyle old lime works

The white substrate of this old lime works always glares and demands attention whenever browsing satellite images of this area. In recent years Paul Roberts has found species there such as Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. coccinea and Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. maritima highlighting good potential and it's been on my hit list of places to look for bryophytes. As I had to abandon Kenfig yesterday due to the thunderstorms, I decided to pop in for an hour during which time the rain thankfully turned to sunshine. Obviously the orchids had long gone over, but the Pyrola was still flowering and other prominent vasculars included additional dune slack species such as Salix repens and Molinia, plus quite a lot of Succisa, so an interesting mix. The sward was largely open with expanses of sparsely vegetated ground (click for video) dominated by bryos and species noted (in decreasing levels of abundance) included:

Trichostomum crispulum

Leiocolea badensis

Preissia quadrata

Dicranella varia

Didymodon fallax

Bryum dichotomum

Pellia endiviifolia

Aneura pinguis

Barbula convoluta var. convoluta

Bryum pseudotriquetrum

Campyliadelphus chrysophyllus

Ctenidium molluscum var. molluscum

Homalothecium lutescens

Gymnostomum viridulum

Didymodon tophaceus

Funaria hygrometrica

Campylium protensum

The red line on the map shows the area that I looked at, so there's plenty more of the site worth exploring. For ref,. there's a public footpath running around the site, but when parking it's best to squeeze onto the verge where I've shown on the plan (SS85248127), rather than use the obvious pull in (marked x), unless you don't mind the attentions of the guys at this popular gay pick-up spot. Also wellies are essential to get through the very muddy gate.  

Preissia quadrata - Leiocolea badensis crust

Leiocolea badensis (Scarce Notchwort)

Not really that scarce, Leiocolea badensis is another calcicole that turns up occasionally at the edges of forestry tracks. Yesterday, in glorious sunshine, we came across a number of patches as we hiked along the high-line trail between Abergwynfi and Cymmer.

Leiocolea badensis, Tunnel Row Forestry, Abergwynfi

The calcicole community also included, among others, Calliergonella lindbergii, Ctenidium molluscum, Dicranella varia, Ditrichum gracile and Encalypta streptocarpa.

Leiocolea badensis resembles L. turbinata but differs in the very obvious broad attachment of the leaves. It is less easy to see that the leaves are also shortly-decurrent until you get a shoot under the microscope.

 Shortly decurrent leaves of L. badensis, on dorsal side

In Smith's key, leaf cell dimensions are used to differentiate badensis from turbinata, but Paton warns that the variation in cell size in both species makes this an unsatisfactory criterion. Better to look for the small, but rather obvious trigones in the leaf cell structure of L. badensis.

Trigones in leaf cell structure of L. badensis

Leiocolea turbinata is a more strict calcicole and unlikely along forestry tracks.

We also collected a round-leaved Jungermannia sp. (without perianths), which was locally abundant, but remains unidentified. 

A quarry at Stormy Down

A survey of one of the Limestone quarries at Stormy Down proved to be reasonably productive today. The Weissia-like acrocarp shown below has me puzzled though: The leaf margins are largely plane, though a few are slightly in-rolled towards the tips; the leaves become in-rolled and very crisped on drying; some patches produce abundant, long, reddish, slightly wavy setae with un-inflated capsules in early development; the leaf cells are papillose and the basal cells are larger and hyaline; the strong orangey-tinged costa ends just below the leaf tip; grows as somewhat loose, sometimes extensive patches, growing along with Leiocolea badensis, Dicranella varia and Didymodon fallax, all of which were locally abundant and characterised the damp, clayey, lime-rich soil on the quarry floor. Other frequent calcicoles noted included Aliona aloides, Aneura pinguis, Trichostomum crispulum and Gymnostomum viridulum, the latter being remarkably abundant on the soil slopes all around the lower edges of the quarry walls. A few patches of Preissia quadrata were also noted on the quarry floor.

Below left; Patches of  Leiocolea badensis frequent on the quarry floor. Below right; Gymnostomum viridulum frequent on slopes all around the edges of the quarry floor.

Below; Gymnostomum viridulum, Sedum sexangulare (doing well!) and Preissia quadrata.