Slade

View along the cliffs west of Slade, the arrowed spot showing a slope below an outcrop where I've
previously recorded Cephaloziella calyculata plus a similar range of species listed below.

It seems like an age since I last looked at the South Gower cliffs, but on the weekend I managed to steal an hour and a half so checked out a section of cliff with virtually no records. I spent the first hour scouring promising looking ground on some outcrops east of Slade but failed to find much of interest. The last 30 minutes thankfully proved to be more productive with species noted in the sward shown below (SS49188551) including Aloina aloides, Bryum donianum, B. kunzei, B. ruderale, Cephaloziella calyculata, Microbryum starckeanum, Pleurochaete squarrosa, Rhynchostegium megapolitanum, Weissia controversa var. crispata, etc..

 Putative Bryum kunzei - I do worry about this one, even though it looks pretty distinct!

Didymodon fallax and the much larger Pleurochaete squarrosa 

Bryum ruderale was particularly common in cliff-top turf in this section

Non-bryological interest was provided by one of the bryoparasitic Pezizales, which keys out Octospora coccinea. This is said to be common in the UK although only 7 records are shown on the NBN. The host was in rather poor condition for identification, but I looked like Bryum dichotomum.

A trip to north-east Wales

Work took me to Clwyd for 2 nights and 1 day.  The day was spent mapping some very nice limestone grassland, with 50+ Frog Orchid and some Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries (eventually photographed and IDed, to my disappointment as I was hoping for Pearl-bordered!).  Both evenings were spent on the stunning limestone escarpment of Creigiau Eglwyseg/Trevor Rocks, whilst a pre-breakfast wander by the River Dee just upstream of Llangollen produced a completely different bryoflora.

Eglwyseg is phenomenally spectacular, but its bryoflora doesn't quite live up to its appearance (or to its rich lichen flora).  Some areas, such as World's End, have been regularly worked by bryologists and have been visited by BBS groups, and these hold a few Nationally Scarce species, such as Entosthodon muehlenbergii and Plagiopus oederianus.  Ditrichum flexicaule s.str had been recorded in the past, and the most recent BBS visit revealed Schistidium robustum and Entodon concinnus, but the site looks ideal for rarer things: why aren't Pennine specialities such as Encalypta rhaptocarpa, Mnium thomsonii and Zygodon gracilis there?!  My two sites, to unknown areas in the south of the escarpment, produced a few Nat Scarce mosses, such as D. flexicaule, Pleurochaete squarrosa and potential S. robustum, as well as Encalypta vulgaris, Schistidium elegantulum, Barbilophozia barbata, Tortula subulata and an excellent tufa spring with Philonotis calcarea, but I don't think there are any surprises among my scant collections for checking.  Any bryo walk when I spent my time photographing lichens must be bryologically disappointing!

Barbilophozia barbata among Dicranum scoparium, and Encalypta vulgaris with a view!

The stretch of the Dee that I checked was also disappointing, with the sunny riverside rocks far too shaded by trees and rank vascular plants, and no sign of Grimmia laevigata or G. ovalis (I hope they are still nearby...).  Equally down-curved Pterogonium gracile and Scleropodium cespitans were perhaps the most notable species, although a Grimmia lurking among the Pterogonium might be better.

Downcurved Pterogonium gracile and Scleropodium cespitans by the Dee. 

My daytime survey, in the Eryrys area, produced Entodon concinnus, Didymodon acutus and Pleurochaete squarrosa.

Pleurochaete squarrosa in the Eryrys area.

Both walks on Eglwyseg were enlivened by 100s of Plutella xylostella: part of the massive national influx of this moth.

Plutella xylostella with Dinas Bran in the background.

Rose-moss at Cwm Ivy Tor

When heading back after a bird count at Whiteford today I decided to take a quick look at the Rhodobryum roseum site at the base of Cwm Ivy Tor, where Veronica Shenston and myself first recorded it in 2011. Buoyed by the frequency of shoots in this area I thought I'd see how far up the tor the population extended. This small colony appeared to peter out fairly quickly as I headed up the slope, but just below the top of the tor it occurred abundantly on many of the grassy ledges shown in the photo above, even making up a significant part of the sward in places (photo below right is a close up of the area shown by the red penknife above SS4350594041). I was running late so I did not attempt an estimate, but there were possibly thousands of shoots along a 25m section of the ledge I walked.

North-west Gower is a bit of a hot spot for this species as Peter also found two sites at St Madoc's Christian Youth Camp in 2008 and 2009. All sites comprise well-drained, sandy soils around Limestone outcrops and are rabbit/sheep-grazed. The sites at Brandy Cove and Kenfig found by Sam now make it four post-2000 tetrads for Glamorgan.

Plenty of other interesting species and as always a few samples to check, but Porella platyphylla was very abundant on the outcrops with frequent Reboulia hemisphaerica on soil gaps.

Also on the walk back past the dune slack I saw a few good candidate Bryum warneum capsules and where the yellow dunes started there were some patches of Pleurochaete squarrosa growing amongst a carpet of Tortella flavovirens & Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum. P. squarrosa is a good candidate for discovery in NPT Charles.