My first square bash of 2017, yesterday afternoon, took me to National Trust's Lanlay Meadows in the eastern Vale. It's a nice site where I've done some moth trapping in the past; a series of dry meadows (cut for hay) and wet meadows (dominated by
Molinia, with some
Carex swamp), bordering the River Ely. There are also thick hedges and some cracking veteran oaks. The site falls within tetrad ST07S, which had previous records of 48 bryo taxa from various sources (including a thatch survey by Richard Lansdown and Sam, and some urban recording by Barry in Bonvilston).
In some ways the visit was disappointing - the oaks were clothed in
Hypnum spp but little else, and most of the riverbank trees were frustratingly out of reach (the banks were steep and topped with dense bramble). I did manage to grab a few arm's-length samples from riverbank alders by lying on the bank; these resulted in a few silty epiphytes:
Leskea polycarpa,
Homalia trichomanoides and
Plagiomnium rostratum. Elsewhere, small streams crossing the site produced a fair range of species including
Hygroamblystegium tenax. By the time I got to the sedge swamp it was almost dark, but the few grab samples I took home included some straggly shoots of
Calliergon cordifolium, last recorded at the site on a CCW survey back in 1995 (photos below).
The tetrad total has risen to 72 taxa.
