Thatch-moss revisted

A few photos from this morning's Thatch-moss twitch at Cosmeston. The thatch was saturated following the early morning rain, so the images are more shiny than I would have liked..

Thatch moss and a first for Glamorgan...

Today was a bitty sort of day, spent just west of Cardiff.  Most important was attending Roy Perry's funeral, as Roy launched me into bryology by lending me 'Watson' in 1996, and then steered me back on to the right path in 1999 when birding was proving too much of a distraction!  I'd probably be a full-time birder or moth'er if it hadn't been for Roy.

My main work of the day was helping Richard Lansdown with his survey of Thatch-moss (Leptodontium gemmascens) at Cosmeston Medieval Village.  Richard found this UKBAP moss new for Wales a couple of weeks ago, on two areas of low-hanging thatch, but today's ladder survey revealed patches on 5 of the site's 10 buildings and suggests there's a thriving Welsh population of this species.  I forgot my camera, but will post a couple of Richard's pics sooner or later.  If anyone wants to see Thatch Moss, look on the southern roof of the southernmost of the three linked buildings (the Reeve's Cottage, http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/Documents/Enjoying/Visit%20the%20Vale/Places%20To%20Go/Parks%20and%20Gardens/cosmeston/Medieval%20village%20Map.pdf): it's at head height above the door as well as on the SE corner, where shaded and kept damp by the roadside hedge.

 

I arrived slightly early at Cosmeston, so spent 20 minutes on the suburban clifftops north from Lavernock point (ST16Z).  Shaded tarmac was rather productive here, with Dialytrichia mucronata, Syntrichia latifolia and Didymodon nicholsonii, alongside a puzzling blunt-leaved, non-fruiting Orthotrichum that will remain unidentified.  A wander southwards revealed an arable field with its margins recently ploughed, where 3+ patches of Ephemerum recurvifolium made a nice addition to the Glamorgan list.  The sticky calcareous clay of this field also looked perfect for Microbryum floerkeanum, but I had little time to search and the ploughing had decimated the potential habitat.  George - finding this tiny Microbryum new to Glamorgan is your challenge for 2015...

After my visit to Cosmeston I spent 30 rain-soaked minutes bashing ST16P, getting ca. 40 species, including Syntrichia latifolia, S. laevipila, S. papillosa, S. montana and S. ruralis, more Dialytrichia, and not a lot else!