Sam mentioned yesterday that he last saw Ptilidium pulcherrimum in Monmouthshire in St. Mary's Vale on edge of Abergavenny in 2001-ish. It was on one of the thousands of oak trees in the woodland there, so re-finding it if it still grows there seemed a bit of a challenge. I happened to have car today so nipped up there at lunch time as I thought that even if I couldn't find the Ptilidium I could at least pay my respects to the Bazzania trilobata that grows there. After half hour of searching I came to a small clearing with a fairly large oak tree and there on the lower horizontal branch were some orangey patches of Ptilidium (sorry about poor photos - taken on phone). It looks like most of the moss and some Ptilidium has fallen off the tree fairly recently.
I had a look around the tree tops to see if there was any Usnea articulata - no joy, but a couple of tufts of Usnea florida were nice to see this far east.
Back down the slope examining old stumps for some of the scarcer Dicranum species - again no luck, just Orthodontium lineare. Lots of Bazzania though and looking very healthy.
