Pal y Cwrt pit stop

Last Saturday we went for a drive over Mynydd Du and during a pit stop at Pal y Cwrt in the hope of a migrant Ring Ouzel (none, but lots of Wheatears in song) I noticed a lovely patch of Antennaria dioica, which was lf in a 6m x 4m area at SN67681813. I made a very quick list of associates and grabbed a small sample with a mix of liverworts and some fruiting Weissia for checking, from the location arrowed above, these being: Ctenidium molluscum, Ditrichum gracile, Encalypta streptocarpa, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Lophozia excisa, Plagiochila porelloides, Thymus polytrichus, Tortella tortuosa and Weissia brachycarpa var. obliqua. My sample also contained shoots that look very much like Bryum kunzei, which is not known from Carmarthensire, so I'll send the sample to Tom, unless Sam would like to take a look first.

Slade

View along the cliffs west of Slade, the arrowed spot showing a slope below an outcrop where I've
previously recorded Cephaloziella calyculata plus a similar range of species listed below.

It seems like an age since I last looked at the South Gower cliffs, but on the weekend I managed to steal an hour and a half so checked out a section of cliff with virtually no records. I spent the first hour scouring promising looking ground on some outcrops east of Slade but failed to find much of interest. The last 30 minutes thankfully proved to be more productive with species noted in the sward shown below (SS49188551) including Aloina aloides, Bryum donianum, B. kunzei, B. ruderale, Cephaloziella calyculata, Microbryum starckeanum, Pleurochaete squarrosa, Rhynchostegium megapolitanum, Weissia controversa var. crispata, etc..

 Putative Bryum kunzei - I do worry about this one, even though it looks pretty distinct!

Didymodon fallax and the much larger Pleurochaete squarrosa 

Bryum ruderale was particularly common in cliff-top turf in this section

Non-bryological interest was provided by one of the bryoparasitic Pezizales, which keys out Octospora coccinea. This is said to be common in the UK although only 7 records are shown on the NBN. The host was in rather poor condition for identification, but I looked like Bryum dichotomum.