Kenfig slacks

The slacks at Kenfig are remarkably dry for the time of year, in fact chatting to Dave Carrington, he said he couldn't remember conditions being so dry during January in all his time at the reserve. I joined him while he checked a few dip-wells which showed the water level was still 50-60cm below the surface. Despite the low water levels, there has clearly been enough humidity in the slacks to allow the pleurocarps to flourish and there were some lovely patches of well-grown Pseudocalliergon lycopodioides (above, top 3 and below, top 2 photos) and Drepanocladus sendtneri  (above, 4th and below 3rd photo) amongst the sea of Calliergonella cuspidata.

Under the adjacent scrub I was surprised to find Mnium stellare was locally frequent on several steep dune banks.

Humid dune slack at Kenfig NNR

dune slack vegetation supporting Drepanocladus sendtneri, overtopped by Salix repens and Carex nigra tussocks

The small slack south of the bird hide floods quite deep (~80cm) during the winter, although yesterday it was bone dry. The composition and structure of higher and lower plants in this slack is very different to that found in the scraped slacks across the reserve, in fact I have been surprised by the range of vegetation variation there is between slacks at Kenfig. Interestingly, the most abundant bryophyte species in the western half of the slack I was looking at yesterday (in compartment 4a) was Fontinalis antipyretica (four photos below). In places it replaced Calliergonella cuspidata as the dominant underscrub species, forming thick wefts beneath Salix repens scrub, as-well-as carpeting areas of open ground and growing as pendant drapes off the lower limbs and trunks of Salix cinerea. I can see Sam noted similar growths in nearby slacks too, but it's the first time that I have encountered it as a major component of slack vegetation.

 

More significant vegetation in the slack included some good patches of Drepanocladus sendtneri (at SS79628103 - top photo - and SS79568102), which are to be safeguarded from proposals to rejuvenate parts of the slack. A robust form of D. aduncus was also frequent in the slack and some some material seemed indeterminate to my eye, even after examining it under the microscope.

D. sendtneri

Miscellaneous observations of less the familiar taxa included Puccinia cancellata on Juncus acutus and Tuberolachnus salignus (Large Grey Willow Aphid) noted crawling around the lower limbs of Salix cinerea.

Kenfig NNR scraped slacks

The deep scrape in the south-west of compartment 3

The above scrape is deeper than most slacks in the south of the reserve and the muddy, rather than usual sandy substrate is exposed much later than most adjacent slacks. The dry crusty margin visible in the photo mostly comprises dried up charophytes (Tolypella glomerata identifiable, but others too far gone), but various bryophytes are admixed, the most notable of which is Drepanocladus sendtneri (photos below - voucher retained if required for checking). After spending much time pondering over my specimen, it was relief to find Sam had already recorded the species at this location in December 2011, presumably in much wetter conditions than those shown above.

On the inward (i.e. deeper) edge of the Tolypella crust, in the south-west sector of the scrape, was an abundance of 'baby' (<1mm) Riccia cavernosa plants growing along with young Bryum sp. There were many thousands of plants, this was in contrast to recent observations in some other scrapes on the reserve which supported mature plants, but in much smaller numbers.

Elsewhere vascular plant interest included a reasonably good number of Liparis in Hedgehog Slack in compartment 1, though none in scraped areas. One scrape in this slack did have the miniscule Chaffweed Centunculus minimus and Dave Carrington took me on a quick visit to Sker to see the Field Gentians Gentianella campestris. Good numbers of the Nationally Scarce scarab Onthophagus nuchicornis were among the beetles found in fresh cow pats there too. Kenfig really is such a great place.