Upper Melincwrt Valley

Upper Melincwrt Valley

The Lower Melincwrt Valley, near Resolven, is a well known and well visited site. It is very accessible, has an impressive, much photographed waterfall and a fairly large population of Hymenophyllum tunbrigense - on a vertical, north-facing sandstone outcrop near the river now difficult to reach and most easily viewed from the path with binoculars. However, the upper part of the valley, above the waterfall, is less well known and much of it is not very accessible, particularly when there is a lot of water running in the brook. H and I have tackled some of the easy parts but much remains unexplored as far as I am aware, particularly where it forms a deep gorge. It is so reminiscent of the Nedd Fechan, Pyrddin and Mellte Valleys, that it makes you think there must be good stuff lurking in there somewhere. Previous visits to the top of the valley, where there is another (small) waterfall, revealed a nice population of Trichocolea tomentella and riverside slabs covered in Nardia compressa.
Yesterday afternoon we tackled the accessible area shown above (vicinity of SN830015) where the rotten logs draped across the stream are plastered with Nowellia curvifolia and Scapania gracilis and some also have large amounts of Odontoschisma denudatum. The occurrence of Blepharostoma trichophyllum, frequent and overlooked though it may be, is also rather nice.

Log with Scapania gracilis and Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Upper Melincwrt Valley

Log covered in Odontoschisma denudata Upper Melincwrt Valley

Odontoschisma denudatum, Upper Melincwrt Valley

Scapania gracilis interwoven with Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Upper Melincwrt Valley

Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Upper Melincwrt Valley

Cwm Clydach (CCS)

It's been a while since I've indulged in any serious recreational bryology, so today it was good to get out and enjoy a 500m search of a tributary of the Lower Clydach River (centred at SN677066). Although this was an attractive little wooded valley, it was generally rather open and lacked any waterfalls or crags. Nevertheless a few noteworthy species were recorded including Odontoschisma denudatum (5 different logs scattered evenly along my walk - 4th vc tetrad), Barbilophozia attenuata (4th vcr), Dicranodontium denudatum (4th vcr), plus a potential candidate for Philonotis arnellii (below, top two images), though my sample although distinct, seemed bigger than I might have expected arnellii to be. An examination of the older leaves shows the cells in the outer 1/3 of the leaf has distal mammillae, but I need a more focused re-examination of my specimen to consider other perhaps more likely possibilities.

Below, Odontoschisma denudatum locations (also on log in top photo): 

Cwm Clydach (SN683066)

Today I spent the last hour of gloom in SN60Y, this being the last Swansea square (excluding coastal and boundary squares) below the nominal 60 species, in fact only 9 prior to today. I still have a good few samples to look at but the square should now be well over the mark, despite not looking at epiphytes, tarmac or concrete. My main effort was focussed on a small feeder stream of the Clydach, which was found to support an fantastic abundance of Odontoschisma denudatum on numerous logs and stumps scattered throughout the woodland (a few examples shown in the photos along with general views of this rather nice site).

On checking the database, despite my choice of stream being totally random, I was amazed to find out this was the precise location where Alan Orange recorded O. denudatum on 15 Mar 1998. The only other species in the system recorded by Alan that day was Solenostoma obovatum, but from a different part of the Clydach Valley. I did collect a Solenostoma sample today, which I've yet to look at. The Clydach Valley has great potential and seems to have received little attention, so another site I shall be looking to revisit for a more critical look...

Odontoschisma denudatum

And while we're on the subject of revisiting sites to see old friends.....,yesterday, H and I made a flying visit to Cwm Rhyd-y-gau, the little valley near Glyn Neath which has one one of the three (known) populations of Jubula hutchinsiae in NPT. A large part of the valley remains unexplored by us, some of it impossible under current conditions. We didn't find anything new yesterday, but it was nice to see that the Odontoschisma denudatum colony we found there a few years ago is flourishing.

Odontoschisma denudatum, Cwm Rhyd-y-gau

Under the microscope the massive trigones (almost as big a the leaf cells) are very distinctive.

Leaf cell structure of Odontoschisma denudatum

It's fortunate that this little valley has survived in a landscape that has been disfigured so much by coal mining, and it certainly warrants more intrepid exploration. Goodness knows what else is lurking there, maybe even Jamesoniella autumnalis or Anastrophyllum hellerianum.
Our trip this afternoon in cold, misty conditions to another mining area, near Tarren Saerbren in RCT, was relatively uneventful as far as bryophytes are concerned. But a very large population of Lophocolea bispinosa on the Tarren Silin coal tip was interesting. The tip has been planted extensively with Lodgepole Pine under which there is a large amount of Pyrola minor.

Loch Sunart

During our trip to Scotland last week I was only able to squeeze in a little bit of bryologising. An hour and half in one of the famous ravines at Loch Sunart was quite a special experience even though it was pouring down, as it was most of our trip. I have a modest selection of unrecognised samples to go through, but it was good to see at least one instantly recognisable species - Herbertus aduncus (Juniper Prongwort).

Also scattered shoots of Anastrepta orcadensis (Orkney Notchwort) were found growing amongst the clumps of Herbertus aduncus.

Lots of Mylia taylorii (Taylor's Flapwort), most frequent on trees bases.

Odontoschisma denudatum (Matchstick Flapwort), locally frequent on decorticated logs.