Mosses over the sea

There is very little land in ST1971 but this monad does include the outer portion of Penarth Pier. A trip with the family last weekend revealed six species growing on the wooden deck of the pier, directly above the sea at high tide but presumably elevated enough to limit the influence of salt. The species were Bryum capillare, B. argentuem, B. dichotomum, Ceratodon purpureus, Hypnum cupressiforme and Dicranoweissia cirrata.

Lower Clydach River above Craig-cefn-parc

I never found anything remarkable during a two hour search along a 1km stretch of the river today, which lacked any cascades greater than what are visible in the above photo. There was a nice colony of Jungermannia pumila (above) on one of only a couple of small cliffs, but probably the most interesting species were Ephemerum minutissimum and Bryum sauteri in an area of disturbed M23a.

One curiosity was Phlebia radiata which was enveloping entire shoots of Hypnum cupressiforme creating an interesting form (note the sample on the right in the image below has been turned upside-down). 

Hillend ORS

Today I finally checked a few specimens I brought back from a 1 hour visit to Hillend, at the northern end of Rhossili Down,on the 4th (the area searched shown above). There is a nice rocky ridge in this area, marking the geological boundary of the Brownstones formation and the Upper ORS. The Frullania on the rocks looked interesting and one of my samples had a mix of tamarisci, dilatata and microphylla var. microphylla, the latter new for the county. I'm pretty confident this is correct and whilst a barely detectable fragrance put a little doubt in my mind, everything else seems spot on. The flat leaves seem to be a good field feature. Occasional burgundy patches of Frullania were dotted around the rocks and whilst I'm not 100% sure which rock my sample came from, I suspect it was that shown in the above photo (approximately SS41939097). I'm sure further searches will reveal further patches with microphylla mixed in. Other species noted included some nice patches of Grimmia trichophylla, Pterogonium gracile and Scleropodium touretii.

G. trichophylla

coastal lichens were much more prominent than bryos.

rocks with Pterogonium, Isothecium myosuroides and Hypnum cupressiforme var. resupinatum

Cwm Dulais (Pontarddulais)

This afternoon I spent 40 mins of Alfie-time looking at a small part of what is a much wider area of south-facing coal spoil in Cwm Dulais SN613036 - how many Cwm Dulais's must there be in Wales! An unremarkable total of 31 bryos were recorded, along with what I'm suspecting must be Galium parisiense, which was locally frequent. I'm not sure if G. parisiense has been recorded on coal spoil before, but it's clearly well adapted to it and would be worth checking for on other tips. Bryologiocally, there was nothing of great note, but it was an interesting assemblage all the same, with frequent Archidium alternifolium (photo 3), Homalothecium lutescens, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum (photos 3-4) and occasional Calliergonella lindbergii, Didymodon ferrugineus, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis (photo 4) & Trichostomum crispulum. Nearby, Fontinalis antipyretica and F. squamosa were noted growing side-by-side in the river.

Commonest bryophyte species

Julita Klusa has just put a link to her list of Latvia's top 20 commonest bryophytes on Twitter.  It is fascinatingly different to the top 20 in south Wales!

Rank	Pembrokeshire (SW Wales)	Latvia	UK notes
1	Kindbergia praelonga	Hypnum cupressiforme	Abundant (No. 2 in Pembrokeshire)
2	Hypnum cupressiforme	Leucodon sciuroides	Uncommon and very local
3	Brachythecium rutabulum	Hylocomium splendens	Locally abundant but habitat specific
4	Frullania dilatata	Plagiomnium undulatum	Locally abundant but habitat specific
5	Metzgeria furcata	Pleurozium schreberi	Locally abundant but habitat specific
6	Lophocolea bidentata	Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus	Locally abundant but habitat specific
7	Isothecium myosuroides	Dicranum scoparium	Locally abundant but habitat specific
8	Bryum dichotomum	Climacium dendroides	Uncommon and local
9	Mnium hornum	Orthotrichum speciosum	Rare and eastern, not in Wales
10	Tortula muralis	Radula complanata	Increasing and locally abundant
11	Bryum capillare	Atrichum undulatum	Abundant (No. 12 in Pembrokeshire)
12	Atrichum undulatum	Nowellia curvifolia	Locally abundant but habitat specific
13	Ulota phyllantha	Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus	Locally abundant but habitat specific
14	Dicranella heteromalla	Eurhynchium angustirete	Not British
15	Bryum argenteum	Homalia trichomanoides	Locally abundant but habitat specific
16	Calliergonella cuspidata	Ptilium crista-castrensis	Uncommon and north-eastern
17	Fissidens bryoides	Plagiochila asplenioides	Locally abundant but habitat specific
18	Thuidium tamariscinum	Syntrichia ruralis	Locally abundant but habitat specific
19	Didymodon insulanus	Neckera pennata	Extinct in Britain, one historic record
20	Ulota bruchii	Plagiomnium cuspidatum	Uncommon and very local

This has got me thinking again what a pity it is that the South Wales Bryophyte Blog is only visible to 'members' and I wonder whether we could make it more visible but with commenting and blogging limited to 'members'.