Orthotrichum rivulare on River Neath near Resolven

 While checking on the Meadow Saxifrage population on the River Neath near Resolven (not in flower yet) H and I came across a nice population of O. rivulare. Barry saw it further up the valley on a riverbank section near Glyn Neath (almost 2 years ago to the day), so it's not new for NPT, but it is pretty scarce in VC41 (I think this is is only the third record - but I might be wrong). Lots of the colonies were fruiting abundantly so I thought some reference shots would be a good idea.

Silt-encrusted Orthotrichum rivulare in flood zone of River Neath, Resolven (SN827030)

Associates included: Leskea polycarpa, Brachythecium plumosum, Schistidium rivulare, Homalia trichomanoides. 

As well as cell size, a useful microscopic character is the toothed leaf apex, although many leaves didn't show this convincingly.

Leaf apex with a few teeth

Glynrhigos Farm

rocks in Afon Dulais with abundant Schistidium rivulare

A friendly (and slightly bemused) farmer at Glynrhigos Farm kindly permitted access for me to record along the Afon Dulais section that passes through SN70R today and I must say despite the rain, it was nice to spend an hour and a half bryologising in the evening, finishing at 7:30pm. The main highlight from this square-bash was a 15cm x 15cm mound of  Leucobryum juniperoideum (confirmed by leaf section - photos below) wedged in a root gap at the base of an oak. Other species of interest included Calypogeia muelleriana, Chiloscyphus pallescens, Lejeuanea patens, Nowellia curvifolia, Orthodontium lineare, Plagiomnium rostratum, Schistidium rivulare & Trichostomum tenuirostre. The square is now on 85 (in fact now 91 after this morning's additional dets.), but a future visit to grassy heaths and coniferous plantations on higher ground at Mynydd Marchywel, plus more epiphyte recording (poorly sampled today) should comfortably take the square over 100.

Leucobryum juniperoideum at base of oak

lower part of the L. juniperoideum mound

L. juniperoideum leaf sections

Trichostomum tenuirostre

Garnswllt

Hopefully today's efforts will have taken both SN60E and SN60J comfortably over the 60 species mark, but I still have quite a bit of material to look at from this site before entering the data. The main highlight was the discovery of a huge colony of Jubula hutchinsiae which extended downstream from the waterfall at SN61960856, where there was a 3m high x 8m wide wall of loose and dripping rock covered in the stuff, but it was also frequent to at least 60m downstream, at which point I headed away from the stream. Saccogyna viticulosa was abundant on a large, nearby rock face that was drier and Thamnobryum alopecurum was noted fruiting freely in patches.

I also managed to have a quick look at the riverbank of the Loughor and found some non-fruiting Orthotrichum which fits rivulare based on cell size. It was growing only 0.5m above the water level on a few small Salix trunks along with Leskea polycarpa fruiting O. diaphanum and a little blackened O. affine. Given it was not in fruit, any thoughts on this welcome [There is some fruiting material in one of my samples so happy with this now].

On the vascular plant front, this 50m hedge was stuffed full of Ruscus. The owner said it had been there for the 37 years he'd lived there, so probably introduced with the Holly as hedging well before this.

Schistidium query 2

There were just a couple of tufts of this growing on a sandstone rock in a small lowland stream near Gorseinon. I first suspected it might be rivulare, but am now thinking possibly apocarpum without a hyaline apex? Shoots turned to one side.

Just a few more pics...

exothecial cells

large adaxial cells in costa

large adaxial cells in costa

cells towards leaf base

cells towards leaf base