Lovely! Splachnum

Last December as I stumbled about in low cloud and gale force winds trying to find some dip-wells at Waun Fach in the Black Mountains, I came across several scattered bits of sheep dung sitting on bare peat, which had a few small patches of infertile Splachnum sphaericum.  As I have never seen this species with sporophytes I brought a sample home and left it in the greenhouse over winter (wife not too pleased!) to see if I could grow it on - four months later and I have a turd almost completely covered in moss with lots of nice sporophytes - I am at Waun Fach next week so will take it back home.   This appears to be first (or at least first modern) record for the Black Mountains.  I think this species is still bracketed for Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, but hopefully it might turn up there soon with Waun Fach being only a few kms from the boundaries of both these counties.  

I think the only other places I have seen Splachnum sphaericum in south Wales is at Mynydd Llangatwg (several times, although seems much less frequent there now than it was 15 years ago) and near Ystradfellte.  

Recently I was sorting through some photos of archaeological sites and came across one I took last year of a cairn on the common above Cwm Cadlan (in RCT, but the old V-c 42).  Although situated in a very exposed and dry spot, in the hollow of the cairn is a small patch of Tetraplodon mnioides.  Presumably a bird coughed up a pellet onto the small mat of moss, which holds just enough moisture to allow the Tetraplodon to grow - probably always worth having a search around these bird perching areas on the moors. 

Splach, at last

I've spent most of the last 6 weeks walking through wet, acidic, cattle-grazed pasture counting Marsh Fritillary larval webs (or mapping their habitat). I've kept my eyes open for Splachnum whenever I've seen a suitably old cow pat, but have seen nothing...until today (the final day of these surveys).

I brought home a few promising-looking samples from Seven Sisters, and sure enough two of them have the distinctive toothy leaves of Splachnum ampullaceum. These were in a very large (20+ hectare) grazing unit located on a failed spruce/larch plantation (SN8308), now fenced to enable cattle grazing to improve the habitat for Marsh Fritillay.

Splachnum ampullaceum

Splachnum ampullaceum

 Also in the same area, on another pat, were some smaller plants which I think are also Splachnum. The leaves were only 2mm long (compared to 4mm in the above photo) and much less toothed. I'm not sure if these are sphaericum or just young plants of ampullaceum - any comments welcome (see photos below).

Also on the pats was a patch of what I can only assume is Pohlia nutans. Is this remotely feasible on a cow pat? Cells were elongated throughout the leaf, leaves are unbordered with a dentate apex and up to 4mm long at the tips of the stems, with dense rhizoidal tomentum below.

Thanks
George

The other Welsh Splach

Whilst on the subject of Splachnaceae, it is always worth checking areas of scree in case of carcasses with Tetraplodon mnioides.  This is the primary (perhaps the only) habitat of this moss in south Wales (VCC 35, 42 and 44) but in mid Wales (46, and just creeping over the border into NE Carms) and the north it is far more abundant on lead mines.

And this is what it looks like with sporophytes - photo from N Wales.

Plus a fruiting Splachnum sphaericum from Snowdonia.

Actually, there is one other Welsh Splach - a single Snowdonia record of T. angustatus.  One we can hope for on next summer's BBS meeting.

Cefn Hirgoed west (Mavis Cruet's Moss)

A thatch meeting at St Fagans (including a somewhat fragile-leaved Dialytrichia on a Beech trunk that needs a bit more investigation) left me driving home along the M4 at lunchtime.  I chose to spend my lunch break on Cefn Hirgoed - at the west end of Hirwaun Common (but nowhere near the Hirwaun on the VC41/42 border).  This is an excellent area, with at least 6km of continuous wet heath, rough grassland, wet areas and rocky bits, and I was only able to do the westernmost tetrad (SS98B) backed up by a cemetery list made in Sarn in 2011.

Highlight was the discovery of two good cowpats' worth of Splachnum ampullaceum, which has just three previous Glamorgan records: two old and one recentish made by Graham in the far north.  These were typically holly-leaved, with huge teeth and acute apices.  Nearby was another cowpat with 6 tufts of a much blunter-leaved moss, with very slight marginal toothing: the first Glamorgan record of Splachnum sphaericum (pending acceptance by Tom Blockeel) and one of very few south Wales records for this species.

The wet heath also held four patches of Sphagnum compactum, which is scarce in Glamorgan, scattered Straminergon stramineum and one patch of Odontoschisma sphagni.  A roadside ditch supported paroicous Cephaloziella stellulifera, fruiting Fossombronia wondraczekii, Pohlia camptotrachela and P. annotina, some Archidium and Scapania irrigua, but attempts at Atrichum tenellum failed.  A check of rocks slightly further up the ridge produced Ptilidium ciliare and Pohlia nutans, but annoyingly they turned out to be just across the tetrad boundary.