Trostre sidings

Snippets of interest from wet woodland near the railway sidings at Trostre included a little Ulota calvescens on the willows plus Calliergon cordifolium with capsules mounted upon impressively long setae, the latter a first for me of this normally barren species. However, at the same site, a crude estimate of 500+ emerging Twayblades in a 50m x 50m area stole the show.

Chasing ghosts

I headed to Hensol Forest yesterday afternoon with thoughts of Ghostwort in my mind. There is a lot of Sphagnum in the wet woodland just to the north of Pysgodlyn Mawr, which seemed a good place to search for it. As it turned out, however, there wasn't a lot of birch in the woodland and it didn't take me long to roll back (and replace) the carpets of Sphagnum from around the base of the few birch trees - unsurprisingly, no Cryptothallus was forthcoming (all I found was a small toad).

This left some time for general recording so I had a poke around the rotten logs nearby, with one particularly splendid example being almost covered in Riccardia palmata and a few smaller patches of Nowellia curvifolia.

On the other side of the lake, a large willow had a tuft of Ulota which looked promising for calvescens - and so it proved when checked under the microscope (the rows of elongated cells inside the leaf margins were very clear).

These and a few other additions took the total for tetrad ST07N from 75 to 85 (the majority of the previous records coming from a visit Sam made to Pysgodlyn Mawr exactly five years earlier).

I headed a bit further south into ST07M, which had a list of only 6 bryophyte species. Following a small stream through the mixed woodland bumped this total up to 52, including Orthodontium lineare, a bit more Nowellia and, more excitingly, two patches of Loeskeobryum brevirostre.

Among these records L. brevirostre, U. calvescens and R. palmata are all new for the Vale - which highlights just how under-recorded this part of the county is.

Ulota calvescens near Monmouth

I stopped briefly at Dixton Embankment LNR on my way back from the school run and spotted a single tuft of Ulota calvescens.  This is, at long last, the first record of this spreading species for VC35.  Perhaps surprisingly, it was less than 50m from the eastern boundary of Monmouthshire, despite U. calvescens being a hyperoceanic moss.

Bryncoch birthday treat

Perhaps there aren't too many who would consider spending a couple of hours wandering around Bryncoch Tip and the surrounding area a birthday treat! However, I do and yesterday my treat gave boosts to SN70F & SN70K, now on 117 and 78 taxa respectively. There was plenty of general interest, but the only real highlight was Ulota calvescens growing on a Hazel branch. Since its initial discovery in the county on 6th March last year, we have now recorded it in eight tetrads.

Ulota calvescens, at last

I finally joined the calvescens club today. After looking for this species a few times in Cardiff in late winter, the usual thing happened - I chanced across it while doing something different. I wasn't even looking at bryos while surveying Marsh Fritillaries at Nany y Crimp SSSI (north of M4 J47) today, but this large tuft on a dead willow stem was so striking that it was unmissable.

As often happens, I'd been wondering if I was overlooking it (among other Ulota), but having seen the real thing I'm pretty sure I haven't seen it until now (unless it is not usually so striking).

Ulota calvescens on rock

I found a single tuft of Ulota calvescens on a capstone of a roadside wall south of Cwmgors (i.e. the Nant-y-Gaseg bridge parapet immediately s.w. of the Abernant Tip turning SN70310858) today, which seemed a bit odd. Sure enough, when I checked I could find no reference to it growing on rock. I also found two tufts on an Oak trunk in Llewelyn Park, Swansea a week or so ago, so at least 4 Glamorgan sites now.

Ulota calvescens in Neath Port Talbot

After looking at lots of Ulota specimens in the Pentrecwydau forestry between Resolven and Glyn Neath, which were mostly  bruchii/crispa types,  a suitable looking tuft with tallish sporophytes and sparsely hairy calyptra was spotted on a branch of one of the hundreds of willows (mostly Salix cinera) that occur along the service road at SN8425/0482. It was growing in an epiphytic community that included Orthotrichum affine, O. pulchellum, Cryphaea heteromalla, Metzgeria furcata and a few others. It was impossible to get a photo of the plant in situ, but we managed to sample a few shoots for identification. The photo below shows the obvious vitta, which I presume confirms the identification.

Ulota calvescens in Glanymor Park, Loughor

Two tufts found in a 20 minute search, one on Salix cf. x fragilis, another on Populus alba. I only had my phone so the shots are pretty hopeless, but they still convey the general impression of sparsely hairy calyptrae and longish setae. Even though the capsules were unripe and presumably the setae not fully elongated, this feature immediately caught the eye. The presence of a vitta seems to nail the id.

Note the leaf edge is curled up in the lower image making the vitta appear closer to the margin than it actually is.

Ulota calvescens - now fruiting on a tree near you

This photo was taken last April at Carmel, but the season for spotting this increasingly frequent moss has now begun.  I found a few tufts with young capsules and classically sparse-haired calyptrae today near Pembrey.  The very long seta is also characteristic. 

Beware that some Ulota calvescens can be hairier than this, resembling U bruchii, so you sometimes need to check the mature leaves from lower parts of a stem (ie the darker green/brownish leaves not fresh young ones) for a 'vitta' of long, narrow, hyaline cells running up from the leaf base about midway across from nerve to margin.  It's possible that some U bruchii and U crispa might be this sparsely haired, but that would be a rare occurrence.

Ulota calvescens had two Welsh and only one or two English records at the time of the first Atlas, and when I published the Pembs Flora in 2010 my Pembs record was mirrored by two in SW England and the two historic N Wales ones.  Graham and I have now found several colonies in Brecs, Carms and Ceredigion, and today's record is the 10th for Carms.  There are also lots of records from the Pennines, we had it in Dorset last summer, and even in East Sussex on the last BBS Spring meeting.  This would have been unthinkable 10 years ago! 

People might have overlooked hairy forms, and these seem to be relatively frequent in the Pennines, but I doubt very much that these classic sparsely hairy forms would have been missed.  I am absolutely sure that this is another spreading Colura-type bryophyte that is benefitting from coniferisation, reduced pollution and climate change.

Ulota calvescens revisited

I picked out a calvescens calyptra from bottom of packet - pics should give an idea of hairiness.