Wye Valley

Earlier this week I visited a replanted woodland in the lower Wye valley. Apart from a small area with natural rock outcrops, it had a rather dull bryo flora and I only managed to record 45 species.  The most interesting part, with the rocks, had lots of Anomodon viticulosa, some fruiting,

sheets of Porella platyphylla and a small patch of Porella arboris-vitae,

but strangely no Neckera crispa, which is usually common in this sort of habitat in this part of the world.   As I hadn’t seen the rather rare moss Seligeria campylopoda for a while, I had a good look at scattered pieces of limestone on the woodland floor, but no joy.  

On my way back to the office I made a lunchtime stop at Wyndcliff to see if the Seligeria was showing there.  I looked in the area I saw some with a BBS excursion back in 2001, but still no luck and as the path quickly became horribly muddy, I turned around to find a drier route.  Walking back towards the car park I spotted a rock with a bonus patch of Amblystegium confervoides.  

Across the road the path was much drier and I quickly found a small rock with three or four young sporophytes of S. campylopoda, but I couldn’t get a good pic due to the dark conditions under the yew trees.   I didn’t have much time left, so I quickly walked on towards the base of the cliffs where there were abundant patches of Marchesinia mackaii – a reasonably common species on shaded limestone in Wye valley woods.  

On the return walk to the car I managed to spot a nice fruiting patch of S. campylopoda on a small rock wedged between two large mossy boulders and managed to get some reasonable pics.

Back at the office I came across a file note from the 1950s, which mentioned that the first area of wood I had visited had been recently clear-felled and replanted and had little botanical interest.  Judging by the age of the trees today, I suspect it must have been clear-felled again about 30 years ago, so not surprising it was poor in woodland bryophyte species.     

Nedd-fechan in pictures 2

Sam introduced Charles and myself to the very easily overlooked Platydictya jungermannioides (photos 1-2), growing in much the same habitat as Orthothecium intricatum (photo 3), both characteristically occupy humid, shady crevices on limestone. Further downstream there was a small colony of another equally unobtrusive pleurocarp, Amblystegium confervoides (photos 4-5), found growing on a stone embedded in the woodland floor.

All the above were found in what was a reasonably open section of ravine, but with damp vertical cliffs on both sides proving to be productive, the cliff on the right hand bank being higher up the slope. I think Charles is photographing Rhynchostegiella teneriffae in the first pic, the lower photo shows Sam inspecting an emergence hole on the r.h.b. with a decent flow of water surfacing.

Amblystegium confervoides

While we are on the subject of very slender pleurocarps - e.g. Heterocladium flaccidum - it is worth remembering to look closely at patches of slender moss on limestone in case of Amblystegium confervoides.  It is narrower leaved than H. flaccidum and is exceedingly slender.  There are scattered colonies on the south Wales limestone.