another little look at Cefn Bryn

I spent an hour and a half on Cefn Bryn in the rain on Saturday and recorded 53 species in an area of flushed ground to the north of Arthur's Stone.  Kurzia pauciflora was more frequent here than I've seen elsewhere on Gower, typically growing through mounds of Sphagnum papillosum. Amongst eight Sphagnum, tenellum was the only species of any note.

Kurzia pauciflora

I only came across one base-enriched flush, where there were small quantities of Palustriella falcata and Sarmentypnum exannulatum mixed in the short turf, which held frequent Campylium stellatum and Scorpidium cossonii.

Scorpidium cossonii

Grimmia trichophylla & Racomitrium heterostichum were present on several of the rocks in the area, surprisingly this being the first time the latter has been recorded on the Gower peninsula.

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum

Racomitrium heterostichum mid-leaf section

Grimmia trichophylla

More stuff from the uplands

Block scree habitat above Blaengwynfi

High above Blaengwynfi, in the Afan Valley, a forestry road straddles the border between NPT and RCT. Not far away, the Pen y Cymoedd wind farm development is transforming the landscape on a geographical scale. Some nice habitat mosaics survive (just!) at least for the time being, such as small areas of wet peatland with abundant Drosera and heathy banks with clubmosses. In a few places, sandstone block scree, the remnants of old quarry workings, provide the sort of bryophyte habitat that George has been showing us recently. Racomitrium ericoides is common on rock in places like this. As Sam tells us, we should look for and perhaps expect R.elongatum in these habitats and I have spent hours looking at likely specimens - but to no avail. Spotting R.elongatum in these places might be tricky and serendipity will probably play a big part. On our trip to the site in the photo above (SS9009/9858), we saw a smallish dark-coloured Racomitrium growing in a fairly tight, cushion on a rock. It looked pretty good for R. sudeticum in a likely habitat not far (as the crow flies) from the Craig y Llyn population, and not that far from the Afan Argoed colony. However, leaf sections clearly revealed a bistratose costa - so it's heterostichum.  All other R. heterostichum that I've seen has been the typical dark grey in colour with conspicuous hyaline points on the leaves.  I think I'm beginning to appreciate how variable this species is - and this also ties in nicely with George's recent post.

Racomitrium heterostichum

Other species on rocks here included R.aciculare and R. fasciculare, the former frequently encountered by us in habitats like this, away from any water course. The iron-rich sandstone rock typically supports crustose lichens like Porpidia macrocarpa and Lecidea lithophila but there was also a significant population of Stereocaulon dactylophyllum scattered over the scree.

Stereocaulon dactylophyllum

Hilary was struck by the large amount of fruiting Polytrichum piliferum here with attractive red seta (completely lost on me, of course!!!).

Polytrichum piliferum

Other interesting stuff included Tortella tortuosa, in the company of other calcicoles like Ctenidium  molluscum and Campyliadelphus chrysophilus, mostly confined to the calcareous edges of the road. This is a rare species in NPT (there's no limestone in the county) but is also found on a coal tip in Afan Argoed and on an old wall near Cwnllynfell.

It's not always easy to get to these upland sites and, invariably,it requires quite a bit of hiking. But since that has probably put off others doing it before you, there's always a high probability that you'll be doing some trail-blazing surveys. RCT is full of places that fit into that category.

Racomitrium confusion

I finished the readily identifiable queries from my Tarren y Gigfran excursion, and am now left with a pile of confusing Racomitrium samples! These are all from the sandstone block screes except the first one which was on the crag itself. Sorry for all the photos but hopefully it will help with Racomitrium queries more generally - best to click each one to enlarge it to see more detail.

1: I think this is R. aquaticum: no hair points, fairly blunt leaf tips, dark green colour, slightly papillose cells, margins plane above, recurved below.  And it was on the damp crags rather than the drier sandstone blocks.
 

2 & 3: these two growing together, near the P. alpinum (now confirmed microscopically btw). The densely tufted plant on the right seems to be R. ericoides (supra-alar cells checked: rectangular not quadrate which rules out elongatum). Some leaves with short hair points, others without them. But the block scree habitat seems a bit odd. The other has long hair points and is possibly heterostichum, though falcate leaves suggest it could be affine.
 

4 & 5: these two growing together. Both have long hair points, though the plant on the right is more slender and somewhat falcate (not so obvious in the pic). Perhaps both are R. heterostichum?
  

6: pale green with red stems, somewhat falcate leaves, long hair points. R. heterostichum?

7: this one from sandstone blocks in the woodland. Smaller than the rest, and dark green. No hair points. No idea!

Thanks for any advice.

George