Schistidium rivulare vs platyphyllum

I'm trying to get to grips with Schistidiums other than S. crassipilum (being practically the only one I saw in Gloucestershire of course). Collected this on a rock in a stream in SO0522 (Cwm Cwarelli) near me, thinking it might be S. rivulare. No hairpoints and the capsules look fairly short (especially the one old one I gathered). Exothecial cells look incrassate to me and the leaf characters look OK for S. rivulare. But... the perichaetial leaves don't really overtop the capsule, and I can't see any stomata on the couple of capsules (one old and one immature) I've checked. Can anyone help?

Puncheston Common

Following our weekend twitch to see the Green Heron in the garden pond of Simon Hart MP, we headed up to Goodwick to look for the Black Guillemots. On the way I managed to convince the gang that Puncheston Common would be a good place to stop and decant our flasks and have a 15-20 minute break, hopefully this giving me enough time to relocate one of Sam's Hamatocaulis vernicosus sites. We stopped by the Waldo Williams plaque and after wandering around for 10 minutes I finally found some healthy patches of Hamatocaulis in very soggy ground surrounding the willows shown centre-right in the above photo. Capsules were reasonably frequent in one patch, which may be of note given the text books all state capsules are rare. The richer orange hues and thicker stems made plants stand out in comparison to Sarmentypnum exannulatum, which was much more frequent at the site. Now it's on my radar, I'd love to find this in Gower.

 

An unexpected bonus was a small but healthy population of Sphagnum platyphyllum at the same locality (photos below), though with warnings of how denticulatum can appear almost identical I'd welcome comments on my id. The texts I have indicate the double layer of cortical cells rule out this potential confusion with denticulatum, plus all the other key characters fit perfectly. The centre of the colony had rather well grown material (the darker of the images below), which looked quite different to the straggly big-budded smaller shoots, but microscopically they were identical. If correct this would represent a westwards extension to the population.

Other species noted at this wonderfully rich site included Anagallis tenella, Breutelia chrysocoma, Calliergon cordifolium, Drosera rotundifolia, Leucobryum glaucum, Menyanthes trifoliata, Narthecium ossifragum, Pedicularis sylvatica, Plagiothecium denticulatum var. denticulatum, Sphagnum squarrosum, S. tenellum, S. teres, Straminergon stramineum, Viola palustris and Wahlenbergia hederacea. This richness contrasts strongly with a lot superficially similar, but much poorer sites in Gower, which makes me wonder how much of an impact burning has on bryophytes, especially given how regular burning is carried out on the commons these days. I wonder if the Pembroskeshire commons are burned less frequently, or is the oceanic effect a bigger factor?

One final note on Leucobryum, it's worth pointing out that the first leaf section I looked at initially made me believe that the plants on the common were juniperoideum and it's only as I was expecting glaucum that I double checked. I'm sure you all do anyway, but do make sure that you cut leaf sections from the basal part of the leaf only. Both images below are from he same L. glaucum plant.

One of the more productive 15 mins in the field I've spent looking at bryophytes, although it was backed up by an hour or so of microscope work!

Days in the Black Mountains - 1 Hatterall Ridge

In contrast to the Brecon Beacons - which Graham and I surveyed systematically in the early/mid 2000s - the Black Mountains are very under-recorded.  They have relatively fewer crags than the Beacons, but those which are present hold some very base-rich rock.  Star species include Seligeria patula and Scapania calcicola on Tarren yr Esgob, an old record of Amblyodon dealbatus, and even a historic claim of Myurella julacea.  We hope to fill in some gaps in recording this year, and I made a start on two days in early-mid January 2018.

My first day was spent in Monmouthshire, where I filled in three marginal tetrads: the fragmentary SO23R and SO32E held fewer than 20 species each, but SO23V was pretty rich, with well over 100 species.  I walked up on to the Hatterall Ridge from the east, between the Red Darren and Black Darren in Herefordshire.  Once on the ridge I marched north to the northernmost point of VC35, which is marked by a tiny cairn.  The northernmost bryophyte in the county turned out to be Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, and half an hour of combing the dry blanket bog produced just 11 species.  Surprise highlight of the area was a patch of leggy Bilberry at >600m altitude that sported 10+ tufts of Ulota bruchii and a tuft of Orthotrichum pulchellum!

The blanket bog on the Hatterall Ridge is mostly very dry and degraded, but I made a few DAFOR lists as I worked my way south.  Highlights were a 1x1m mound of Sphagnum capillifolium rubellum at SO275311, 10s of square metres of S. cuspidatum and S. papillosum in an area of pools at SO281306, and a few shoots of Cephalozia connivens in the latter area.  Cowberry and Crowberry were prominent features of the area.

A contrast to the blanket bog/moorland was provided by the hillside above Trevelog, at 420-450m altitude; this accounted for the majority of the bryophyte diversity in SO23V.  There were Old Red Sandstone boulders with Ptychomitrium polyphyllum, Seligeria recurvata and Tortella fasciculata, a deep valley with Entosthodon obtusus, Ditrichum gracile, Gymnostomum aeruginosum and abundant Conocephalum salebrosum, and a series of base-rich rills with Philonotis calcarea, Palustriella falcata, Jungermannia exsertifolia, Leiocolea bantriensis, Plagiomnium ellipticum and P. elatum.  Star find was some dense patches of Riccardia incurvata alongside one of the rills, new for the Black Mountains and VC35.

After these riches I reckoned the tetrad was well-covered, so climbed back up to the ridge so as to head southwards to SO32E.  En route I noticed a frozen flush high on the hillside in SO22Z, so headed for it.  My logic was that if a spring/flush was cold enough to be frozen when the rest of the hill had thawed then it should hold something rare.  I followed it upwards, and found two extensive patches of Sphagnum platyphyllum at SO286297 & SO287297 - my logic had proved right!  This was a new species for the Black Mountains and VC35, and is a long way south of its nearest colonies in mid Wales and the Long Mynd.  It was also the most well-marked S. platyphyllum I have ever seen, with large apical buds, pale stems, large stem leaves and regularly monoclade shoots.

SO32E still beckoned, and on my way there I spied another rushy spring on the ridge edge.  This too held Sphagnum platyphyllum at SO297287, as well as S. capillifolium rubellum and S. papillosum.  The final fragmentary tetrad produced 17 species, which was all that could be expected from a few hundred square metres of dry, patch-burnt blanket bog.  All in all it was a good day! 

Misty Maerdy

On Monday I spent an enjoyable foggy day on the colliery spoil at Maerdy with a few other recorders. Emma Williams organised the outing and I was happy to explore a new area, especially as  Peter Sturgess and Karen Wilkinson were there to help with the bryos.

Part of the site had been looked at by Roy Perry in 2005, whose 64 bryophyte records were pretty much the only ones for tetrad SS99U. Peter Sturgess also did a botanical survey of the site in the same year, and was amazed how much the site has changed in the intervening 11 years. Peter remembered areas of sparsely-vegetated, flushed spoil with plety of Encalypta streptocarpa - a species we failed to find this time round. The flushes are now dominated by vascular plants and bulky pleurocarps. Willow scrub had established itself in some areas and Peter was surprised to see Rhytidiadelphus loreus - conspicuous on Monday but not recorded back in 2005.

We identified a good range of bryophyte species in the field, and I took quite a lot of samples home (which amounted to four evenings-worth of microscope work)...eventually the list for the day crept up to 96 bryophyte taxa. Roy recorded around 20 species which we didn't, and Peter has made a few records independently, so the tetrad total is now around 120.

The highlight for me was a nice cushion of Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens on the side of a concrete drain (photo below - thanks to Barry for the recent field pointers on this one). There was nothing else of special note, but species I don't see very often included Hygrohypnum luridum (on concrete), H. ochraceum (in the Rhondda-fach), Schistidum platyphyllum (photo - abundant on rocks in the river, also recorded on Roy Perry's 2005 visit), Colura calyptrifolia (on young willow), Scapania gracilis (acidic crags), S. nemorea, Archidium alternifolium (photo - a couple of straggly patches on spoil), Calliergonella lindbergii (spoil), Straminergon stramineum (flush), Ptychomitrium polyphyllum and Racomitrium fasciculare (in an old quarry). To cap the day off nicely, Rei (Barbara) Brown found a nice specimen of Usnea articulata on larch.

Afon Afan, Pontrhydyfen

Yesterday a revisit to a site I'd looked at back in 2011 gave me the opportunity to check a short section of riverbank, which was largely modified by concrete and limestone blocks beneath the old bridge abutments. A small patch of Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens was probably the highlight (photos above), growing alongside Weissia controversa var. densifolia, the latter visible in the second photo as a bright green strip running between the large metal pipe and the colony of B. ferruginascens.

Schistidium platyphyllum (two images below-left) was frequent on the concrete and rocks that get periodically inundated, associates including Hygroamblystegium tenax and Hygrohypnum luridum  (two images below-right).

Afon Tawe at Glais

Fruiting Schistidium platyphyllum showing the short perichaetial leaves; good patches noted growing on the large Limestone boulders on the left hand bank of the river just downstream of the bridge.

Taff riverbank mossing

I've made a couple of lunchtime forays along the Taff riverbank in Cardiff over the last week or so, in an attempt to try and build up more complete species lists for the tetrads which the river corridor passes through.

Recently, I've focused on the western bank in ST1480, which is bordered by abandoned meadows and attracts few visitors. I've been pleasantly surprised by the range of species present. The photo below was a particular hotspot, with the ash roots on the left supporting Homalia trichomanoides, Syntrichia latifolia, Brachythecium plumosum and, nicest of all, a small patch of Anomodon viticulosus (the first time I've seen it by a river). The concrete blocks (presumably former bank protection) in the river on the right of the photo held the Schistidium platyphyllum featured in my previous post, as well as some very large Cinclidotus fontinaloides.

Other riverbank species recorded nearby included Plagiomnium rostratum, Platyhypnidium riparioides, Brachythecium rivulare, Pellia endiviifolia, Leskea polycarpa (on flood zone Buddleia and Sycamore bark) and Mnium marginatum. The latter is proving quite common along the Taff between Bute Park and Forest Farm, and seems to occur wherever there are silty margins shaded by trees or, in the present case, stands of Japanese Knotweed.

I've now covered most of the accessible Taff riverbank within Cardiff, so will soon have to turn my attention to the Ely and Rhymney (though these are not so accessible).

Schistidium query

On Friday I collected this Schistidium from a large concrete block in the flood zone of the River Taff, in Cardiff. At first I thought it was rivulare but a few (c. 10%) of the leaves have a short hair point - see photo 3 below - so I presume this must be apocarpum, though I'd appreciate confirmation. The old capsule in the second photo looks a bit shorter than that illustrated for apocarpum in Smith, but I'm guessing this is just due to variation within the species.

I hope one of you is able to confirm anyway!

Thanks
George