Kew Gardens

We had a family outing to Kew Gardens on 26th June. I managed to resist the temptation to take any samples from the luxuriant bryophytes growing in the glass houses, reasoning that I'd have little chance of identifying any of them. I did make a small concession to bryology by taking a sample of a small acrocarp from damp stonework in the gardens, scraping it off using my fingernail.

Under the microcope the sample proved to be a mix of two species: young plants of Tortula marginata and T. muralis. The difference between the short, greenish hairpoint of marginata and the long, colourless hairpoint of muralis was quite striking, but otherwise the two looked similar - apart from the elongate, incrassate marginal cells of marginata, visible under high power (photos below).

The Atlas map suggests marginata is a widespread species in south-eastern England, but the only South Wales records away from the borders seem to be two from southern Pembrokeshire and one from Kenfig Castle - two of these records being made by Sam. One for me to look out for in Cardiff I suppose...Llandaff Cathedral might be a good bet.

Tan-y-Graig (SN60S/X)

Rhabdoweisia is not a genus I've had much experience of, so I'd welcome any advice on this one. The habitat (above) and lack of a peristome on most capsules say fugax, but the leaves seem to say crispata (i.e. cell width in upper part of leaves mostly 12-15µm, leaf lamina avge cell count at 220µm from leaf tip =7 and rounded leaf shape with irregular teeth). Cynodontium bruntonii was the only direct associate, but others on the same crag included Racomitrium aquaticum, Andreaea rothii subsp. falcata, Diplophyllum albicans, etc.

Marsupella marginata var. marginata was frequent including patches in fruit

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.