Sychryd scramble

On the 20th a climb up through the complex of boulders and falls along the Glamorgan side of the Sychryd boosted the totals for SN90D from 90 to 159 and SN90E from 41 to 106. Highlights from the limestone section included scattered colonies of Cololejeunea calcarea (photo 1 below), Neckera crispa (just one small tuft noted), Oxyrrhynchium schleicheri (one small colony), Rhynchostegiella teneriffae (sheets of it above water line, photo 2), Seligeria acutifolia (small amounts at 2 locations, photo 3), S. donniana (only 1 fruiting patch seen,, photo 4), Taxiphyllum wissgrillii (1 patch noted on a small embedded rock) & a little Dermatocarpon miniatum (photo 5).

A couple of logs in the higher acid section of the gorge supported species including Barbilophozia attenuata, Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Cephalozia catenulata (photo 1 below), Dicranodontium denudatum & Riccardia palmata, plus there were a couple of nice patches of Hymenophyllum tunbridgense half way up the valley side.

Of note for the wrong reason was a single 10cm x 10cm patch of Lophocolea semiteres established on the track as you walk down the north side of Dinas Rock.

Earlier in the day on the way up the Neath Valley, three lay-by stops along the A465 all showed that the putative Didymodon australasiae is a well established component of the verge dirt zone along this road. A little Ephemerum minutissimum was also collected and checked under microscope at one of the stops.

Nedd-fechan in pictures 1

Part of a length cliff with lots of, mostly non-fruiting, Seligera (photo 2), though Sam did manage to find a few with capsules [of acutifolia (photo 3) and donniana (photo 4)]. Also there were good patches of Cololejeunea calcarea (photo 5) all along the same face.

Lower down the valley, where the woodland flora reflected more neutral-acidic conditions, there were areas in which Loeskeobryum brevirostre pretty much blanketed every surface on the woodland floor, along with with frequent Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus and a little R. subpinnatus.

Grimmia hartmanii was noted on millstone grit boulders and would appear to be thinly but widely distributed through this section of ravine.

Grimmia query

Here are a few photos of the Grimma referred to in the previous blog (see here). The sample is tiny but hopefully sufficient for a positive ID. It was growing on ORS either in or next to the rocky stream at SN971212. I've tried keying it out using Smith; the basal marginal cells are thin walled which limits the options to a few species. The long hair points (flattened at base, rounded apically) and upright capsule suggest G. donniana, but would this acidophile grow on ORS? The associates were mostly species suggestive of plenty of base enrichment (including Ctenidium molluscum as well as those mentioned in the previous post). The other confusing thing is I'm almost certain that when I collected it the seta was curved, but by the time I examined it the specimen had dried out a bit and the seta was straight (and no amount of rewetting will cause it to curve again). This might suggest G. arenaria, but as there are no South Wales records of that species it seems unlikely.

Hopefully someone more experienced with Grimmia can help; I can pass on the sample if necessary. Otherwise I'll have to call at the site next time I'm driving up the A470.

Home squares

I have two home tetrads: one in VC35 and one in VC44.  Both are pretty ordinary but have the advantage of me being able to repeatedly poke around in all sorts of different habitats, picking up small populations of varied bryophyte species.  Actually, the Dingestow tetrad SO40P (half way between Raglan and Monmouth) is rather non-ordinary because it includes a large Victorian garden, lots of setaside and arable, and a wooded ridge with base-rich springs and planted conifers, but there are any number of equally diverse tetrads in eastern Monmouthshire.

Additions keep coming, both arriving de novo and just being discovered afresh.  Encalypta streptocarpa seems to be a newish arrival on an asbestos roof, whereas lumps of tufa in the garden produced Tortula marginata and Seligeria donniana of assumed long-standing this summer. 

The tetrad list for SO40P (Dingestow) now stands at 217 taxa, with highlights such as Acaulon muticum, Amblystegium humile, Anthoceros agrestis, Aulacomnium palustre, Bryum caespiticium, Chiloscyphus pallescens, Colura calyptrifolia, Drepanocladus polygamus, Ephemerum sessile, Eurhynchium schleicheri, Hennediella stanfordensis, Leiocolea turbinata, Leucodon sciuroides, Orthotrichum pallens, Phaeoceros carolinianus, Platygyrium repens, Pylaisia polyantha, 3 spp of Racomitrium, Sematophyllum substrumulosum, Syntrichia virescens, Weissia longifolia, W. multicapsularis and W. rutilans.

The Cnwc y Llwyn tetrad (SN53A) is lagging behind a bit at 181 taxa.

The big question is how we can expect to get genuine complete tetrad coverage in any county, when a good day out in a tetrad in either SN53 or SO40 would produce 80 to 100 species, the true scores are more than double that, and there is little or no chance of repeated visits to anywhere other than our 'home' squares.