Mosses over the sea

There is very little land in ST1971 but this monad does include the outer portion of Penarth Pier. A trip with the family last weekend revealed six species growing on the wooden deck of the pier, directly above the sea at high tide but presumably elevated enough to limit the influence of salt. The species were Bryum capillare, B. argentuem, B. dichotomum, Ceratodon purpureus, Hypnum cupressiforme and Dicranoweissia cirrata.

Memorial Mosses

For the last five years I have driven past a collection of sad-looking teddy bears strapped to a tree in Gorseinon, which mark the spot of a fatal accident. Over time the teddies have been colonised by bryophytes and not wishing to be disrespectful I have put aside my natural curiosity to take a closer look. However, as the shrine has not been tendered for several years, today my conscience allowed me to take a look. This little community of memorial mosses included Bryum capillare, Ceratodon purpureus, Microlejeunea ulicina, Orthotrichum affine, O. diaphanum, Syntrichia laevipila & Zygodon conoideus.

Fairwood airport

I made a brief stop-off on Tuesday to look at the section of concrete runway outside the perimeter fence SS573910 at Fairwood. This revealed small quantities of Plagiomnium cuspidatum (photos above) growing with more abundant associates that included Brachythecium albicans, Ceratodon purpureus, Climacium dendroides (photo 7), Didymodon insulanus, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis and some attractive tufts of Bryum dichotomum var. barnesii (photos 5 & 6). Campylium protensum and Ctenidium molluscum were frequent along the adjacent track.

More bits and pieces

With limited time for square bashing lately, I thought I'd start to target a few squares close to home which are lacking records of the 10 commonest species. So, today I walked Alfie on Fairwood Common in an effort to add Ceratodon purpureus to SS59R and ended up spending 45 minutes splodging around the boggy area opposite the entrance to the university playing fields (SS576925). There were no major surprises, but it was nice to find Cephalozia connivens and a few patches of Sphagnum compactum on a bog / wet-heath mosaic where there was a great abundance of Hypericum elodes. A few calcicoles were found adjacent to the road, where I suspect buried Limestone chippings provide localised base enrichment in a square otherwise dominated by calcifuge species.

C.connivens growing in Trichophorum tussock, the main associates 

being Hyp.jut., Cal.fis,, Cep.bic., Mni.hor. & Cam.pyr. 

Sphagnum compactum

Straminergon stramineum growing
through mounds of Sphagnum subnitens

I did eventually find some Ceratodon...

Steel works spoil

Last week I took a quick look at a zinc spoil tip in the Port Talbot works (SS768872). Unfortunately I wasn’t permitted to go onto the tip itself, so was restricted to searching around just one small area alongside the road. There was no sign of the hoped for Scopelophila, nor any other metallophytes, and the list of species recorded (see below) was fairly mundane and indiacted the section I looked at [made up of powdery black dust] was not contaminated. There are plenty other tips of various types scattered throughout the works, so it seems feasible that a Scopelophila colony could still be awaiting discovery. Search opportunities are likely to be limited, but I’ll keep on trying whenever a chance presents itself.

Spoil tip edge species in decreasing level of abundance:
Ceratodon purpureus
Barbula convoluta var. convoluta
Barbula convoluta var. sardoa
Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum
Didymodon fallax
Tortula muralis
Drepanocladus aduncus
Brachythecium albicans
Didymodon tophaceus
Amblystegium serpens var. serpens
Cratoneuron filicinum
Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis

Funaria hygrometrica

Rhododendron clearance pioneer bryophytes

Today I stopped to take a very quick look at an area on the valley sides of Cwmdulais (SN618035), which were cleared of dense stands of Rhododendron ponticum four years ago. Vascular plants seem very slow in recolonising and the ground was found to be largely dominated by bryophytes, with the most abundant species being Ceratodon purpureus and Polytrichum juniperinum, with frequent Atrichum undulatum, Bryum capillare, Campylopus introflexus, Cephaloziella divaricata, Dicranella heteromalla, Pogonatum aloides and Polytrichastrum formosum. No surprises, but a good indication of the pioneer bryophyte assemblage which develops following ‘Rhody’ clearance on open hillsides. For reference the adjacent vegetation on non-affected slopes is principally Bracken-dominated, though there are some signs of this slowly re-establishing in cleared areas.

Polytrichum juniperinum

Ceratodon purpureus & Dicranella heteromalla

Interestingly Yellowhammers still occupy the Rhody areas, both cleared and dense stands, and we saw 7+ nearby in Sandra's aunties garden.