Having recently moved to Wales I
thought I’d share some of the bryophytes near my new home but it would be
stretching it a bit to call it South Wales!
We now live in Goginan which is about 6 miles east of Aberystwyth in one
of the many valleys that penetrate into the Cambrian Mountains from the
coast.
The stream here is the Melindwr which
joins the better-known Rheidol a few miles downstream.
There is much evidence of mining in the
valley, the local spoil heap having good quantities of Lophozia incisa under
heather but none of the real specialities of some of the lead mines in the
area.
Lane banks as you start walking
upstream are notable for an abundance of Diphyscium foliosum and rock outcrops often
have some Rhabdoweisia crispata cushions.
Further still up the valley the sides steepen and there are extensive
rock outcrops.
Both Hedwigia stellata
and H. integrifolia can be found here, the latter in impressive sheets over
wide areas of rock.
Judging from the
comments in Jeff Bates’ excellent book, this must surely be one of the best spots
for it in this part of Wales so far discovered.
Many patches are over a foot across.
Also on these rocks are numerous
cushions of Cynodontium bruntonii. The
mamillose cells are readily apparent in section but the way the leaves get
markedly longer going up the shoot is proving to be a useful indicator in the
field, at least for separating it from Dicranoweisia cirrata. No rare Grimmias as far as I can see but will
keep looking.
The valley opens out into
moorland at the top with some very old sunken trackways. The banks of these have fine colonies of
bryophytes, in some places with good patches of Anastrepta orcadensis easily
picked out from surrounding Barbilophozia floerkii by the dark brown gemmae.
On the vertical peat edges of
one of the tracks, where cut by vehicle tyres, are tiny patches of
Cladopodiella francisci, difficult to find buried under filamentous algae and
surely much overlooked in this most unglamorous of habitats. Another under-recorded moss on these tracks
is Polytrichum commune var. perigoniale.
I’ve spent many hours identifying
Racomitrium spp. To start with I
couldn’t find anything other than R. affine but after cutting innumerable leaf sections,
R. heterostichum was finally found but only on the rocks along the ridge at the
top of the valley with all material from the valley sides proving to be R.
affine. Also on rocks at the top are
many small cushions of R. sudeticum, hardly resembling the other members of
this group. I'll try and put some notes together on some of these segregates, including R. obtusum I hope, but I'm still learning at the moment!
I’ve followed in Sam’s footsteps
to a few other sites nearby, particularly where basic rock intrudes through the
very acid shales that dominate the geology here. Bryn Bras proved an excellent spot and I
refound most of Sam’s goodies but Sphagnum skyense eluded me. I was able to add Cephalozia pleniceps from a
small bog on the moorland above the cliffs and there was Barbilophozia
atlantica on a boulder by the river. The
Bwlchglas mine still has Ditrichum plumbicola but clearly much reduced from
2005 when Sam described it as being abundant in the identical spot. A walk to Craig y Pistyll via Banc y Garn got
no further than Banc y Garn as the basic outcrops and flushes there were just
too tempting with sheets of Preissia quadrata pointing the way. Not much new for the site although a large
colony of Rhabdoweisia crenulata was a nice way to end the day.
More news soon. Tom.
