Hirwaun Common crags

During an unplanned morning outing last Sunday, I ended up on the north-facing sandstone crags at the northern edge of Hirwaun Common, primarily in an attempt to add to the paltry total of 13 taxa for SN90H. As it happened I was slow getting out of Cwar Canwyllyr [Chandelier Quarry] within SN90G, which already had a respectable total of 111, although I was able to add an additional 20 spp. including some nice patches of Bartramia pomiformis, one of my favourite mosses.

Eventually, I did manage just short of an hour in the target square and managed to take the totals up to a not very impressive 65. The only highlights of any note on these dry acid slopes, with very few outcrops in the section I walked, were a few small that supported healthy patches of bryophyte vegetation. These included a few species of local interest such as Cynodontium bruntonii, Barbilophozia floerkei and Ptilidium ciliare.

isolated small crag supporting the species shown below

Ptilidium ciliare

Barbilophozia floerkei

Cynodontium bruntonii

rather mudane, rank Molinia-Eriophorum vaginatum on top of the hill

attractive, but very species-poor dry heath with co-doinant
Vaccinium myrtillus -Pleurozium schreberi slopes

view to west, looking across to the more interesting Craig y Llyn

The Gloucestershire Bryophyte group at Llangattock

The Glos bryology group arranged an out-of-county day at the eastern end of Llangattock this year, to give us a bit of a change from the usual neutral / calcareous woodlands and grasslands of our own county. 7 of us turned up at the quarry car park on a chilly Sunday morning in March, to explore the conical spoil heaps, fallen boulders and quarry walls of the area. We didn’t get very far (as usual!), but still managed to record 97 species for the square SO2015.

Highlights of the day were Racomitrium canescens on the grassland at SO20241554, and Bryum elegans on a fallen boulder at the base of the quarry (SO20491535). Both are new species for VC 42.

Racomitrium canescens

Bryum elegans in situ

Bryum elegans: Note reflexed hair-points and border of long narrow cells

We spotted some lovely patches of Sanionia uncinata sheltered within the walls of an old building and scattered throughout the grass on the spoil heaps above.

The Climacium dendroides was looking particularly photogenic and I just couldn’t resist...

We saw Philonotis calcarea, new to many of us, and Sharon Pilkington unintentionally collected Philonotis arnelli in amongst another specimen. Sharon also spotted Distichium inclinatum on the outside wall of the derelict building – there were old capsules which were clearly inclined, and new ones coming which I will go back and photograph if I get a chance.

Further to the west, David Hawkins found Calliergon cordifolium in shallow pools on the quarry bottom, but sadly the inevitable rain arrived about then, so we have no photos.

Finally, not to forget the liverworts, some beautiful Ptilidium ciliare on rocks amongst the grassland to the west of the spoil heaps:

And Tritomaria quinquedentata on the spoil heaps amongst the grass and other bryophytes:

All in all, we had a fantastic day and are planning a return trip soon for those who couldn’t make the first visit.

Cymmer

There's an imposing north-facing outcrop that hangs high above the A4107 just west of Cymmer and opposite the small village of Abercregan (SS852962). Surprisingly, we've never looked at these acidic, sandstone blocks before, but late yesterday afternoon in fading light we gave them a cursory inspection. In association with an abundance of fairly common liverworts such as Diplophyllum albicans, Gymnocolea inflata and Lophozia ventricosa we noted some nice patches of Ptilidium ciliare, which is not common in NPT.

Ptilidium ciliare, Cymmer

More pleasing was the local abundance of Barbilophozia floerkei and B. attenuata, both of which are fairly scarce in VC41.

Barbilophozia floerkei, Cymmer

Barbilophozia attenuata (and Oreoweisia bruntonii), Cymmer

Other notables were Oreoweisia bruntonii and some fabulous clumps of Scapania gracilis.

Oreoweisia bruntonii, Cymmer

Scapania gracilis, Cymmer

I think a systematic search in better light could be rewarding. Also worthy of note was the abundance of Dryopteris cambrensis in the vicinity, although this is a relatively common species in the uplands of NPT.

SN71K square bash

As a birthday treat, I spent the morning looking at a short section of the Afon Llynfell and stopped for quick searches on a couple of nearby coal tips. The tips weren't particularly exciting, though Ptilidium ciliare was locally frequent. Similarly, the riparian woodland of the Llynfell was unremarkable, though should return a decent total once the records are entered and tallied. However, the most interesting observation of the day was a lovely colony of Grimmia orbicularis (I've not checked the book yet, but I'm not aware of any lookalikes?) - I'm not sure what compelled me to stop, but somehow it just looked different to other Grimmia-topped walls as I was driving along Coedffaldau SN74461141. The wall was capped with a coarse concrete mix and the main associates were Schistidium crassipilum and G. pulvinata, with smaller amounts of S. apocarpum, Tortula muralis, Syntrichia montana, Bryum capillare, Orthotrichum anomalum, Homalothecium sericeum and Barbula sardoa. I didn't count the tufts, but there must be in excess of 50. Fresh tufts G. pulvinata were obviously brighter green, though older ones were quite similar to orbicularis and I wasn't sure about some of the non-fruiting intermediates.

 southern-most plants noted, the colony extending close to the end of the wall in the distance

Ulota query

Even though the whitish spreading/erect peristome is suggestive of drummondii, I'm suspecting this is just bruchii. The habitat was unusual in that it was growing on rock (ORS quartz conglomerate) fully exposed on a south-facing slope on Cefn Bryn. I've not looked at it under the microscope yet, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd be interested to hear. Possibly one to hang on to giving the proposed split?

dry voucher

wetted plants in situ

habitat

Little else of any real note, though a good area of the perennial favourite Ptilidium ciliare amongst Heather and lichens, new for SS58.

Ptilidium ciliare on coal tips

The distribution of this attractive liverwort in Glamorgan is slowly unravelling. Its appearance in natural and semi-natural habitats is rather sporadic, but it seems to be an almost constant component of broken swards on older coal tips. Yesterday I made a pit stop and Ffos y Fran to add some records to SO00S & SO00T and found it in both, though P.c. was only new for the latter. Other typical species of these pseudo-CG1 tip communities [have you ever NVC'd these communities Sam?] noted included Filago minima, Festuca ovina, Carlina vulgaris, Thymus polytrichus, Cladonia spp., Pilosella officinarum, Racomitrium lanuginosum, R. ericoides, Polytrichum piliferum, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, etc. Good to see a couple of pairs of Lapwings with well-grown chicks there too.

 

 

Cefn Bryn

Grimmia trichophylla low-right on rock

As it was a beautiful morning and the forecast is rubbish for the weekend, I took Alfie for a stroll over that part of Cefn Bryn within SS49V. The square already had 81 species logged, but I've always wanted to look in the small ORS quarry at SS49759012 along with the sparse scattering of rocks on the common in the hope of finding Hedwigia. During our perambulation I failed to find any Hedwigia, but did manage to take the square total to 99. The quarry had more Ptilidium ciliare above-left than I’ve seen anywhere else in Gower, but little else of note. Other species of interest on the open common included a single small colony of Grimmia trichophylla above-right (I’ll check my sample for lisae over the weekend), Pleuridium acuminatum below top-right, Microlejeuna ulicina growing though a small cushion of Cephaloziella divaricata below top-left on an ORS quartz conglomerate rock and Kurzia pauciflora bottom left & right (Bristly Fingerwort!) growing with Odontoschisma sphagni on Sphagnum papillosum. A brick bunker on the common added a good selection of wall calcicoles.

An itch that needed to be scratched

I've been wanting to have a proper look at Tarren y Gigfran (ST09U), an area of sandstone crags and block screes to the south of Aberfan, for some time - and I finally got the chance yesterday. There were only two previous bryo records from the site: Andreaea rothii ssp. falcata recorded by Wade in 1958, and Racomitrium lanuginosum recorded by me on a casual visit in 2012.

On the way to the crags was a small wooded cwm filled with huge sandstone blocks.

These supported a good range of acidophiles including abundant Scapanea nemorea on some of the blocks.

Sandstone blocks with abundant Scapanea nemorea

To reach the east-facing northern crag I had to cross a large area of block screes, which supported abundant Racomitrium heterostichum, occasional A. rothii ssp. falcata, small patches of Ptilidium ciliare and Scapania gracilis, and a couple of patches of what I think is Polytrichastrum alpinum (see photo below - stems were branched and look good for it, but I suppose I should attempt a leaf section to confirm).

Sandstone blocks and crags beyond

Andreaea rothii ssp. falcata

Ptilidium ciliare

Polytrichastrum alpinum (tbc)

Polytrichastrum alpinum (tbc)

The northern crags showed absolutely no evidence of base enrichment, but a nice range of calcifuge mosses were present including frequent Cynodontium bruntonii and a couple of cushions of Bartramia pomiformis.

Cynodontium bruntonii

Bartramia pomiformis

The itch isn't quite scratched as I didn't have time to look at the southern crag, which is north-east facing and longer than the northern crag. Another time...