check up on Southbya in Lydstep

On the way back from St Davids (long weekend camping) I decided to pop to Lydstep to check out Sams Southbya tophacea colony he had recorded back in 2012?  I am slowly visiting all the Welsh populations, just Barafundle Bay left. I had a quick scrabble up the cliff and after about 40 minutes I had identified a few very shrivelled up colonies. To say a few I mean three at best, none more than 10 cm in area and all on loose open ground of which there wasn't much (see general site photo). So good to confirm it is still there (SS 09150 97747).

Interesting that it was growing in the unconsolidated and quite loose 'scree' made up of fragments of limestone from the host bedrock (Carboniferous Pembroke Limestone Group) mixed together with clay and soil, rather than directly on more permanent tufa forming seepages (like the VOG populations). I could only find it on more open areas of ground, which were very limited.

The weather was gloriously dry, so I would hope to find more  if everything wasn't so shrivelled up, mind you, not sure id fancy climbing that cliff in the wet.

As usual I was armed with a totally underwhelming iphone4 for photos, so do 'enjoy'.

location on cliff

general view of site, with lots of Contoneaster and other ground cover..including Hannah busy getting a closer look. 

close up, Southbya on the unconsolidated material rather than direct on the bedrock. 

Colony of shrivelled up Sothbya tophacea  (I know another terrible photo, was checked with x10 hand lense)

...more of the same, but this time with a microscope

Hannah had the pleasure of going back to Porthkerry today to photograph Southbya (without disturbing it) with my new portable 'DinoLite' USB microscope. With laptop packed we set off, and arriving at Porthkerry we were greeted by a large flood, over topping of the Nant Talwg and the Whitelands Brook into the low lying area of the golf course.  Once we had navigated the flood waters we made it to the beach. The heavy rain from the last few days had manifested itself into mini water falls on the cliff. There was evidence of fresh cliff fall. The section with Southbya was relatively dry and in contrast to the section of cliff next to it which was pouring with water (and has no Southbya) suggests it likes it damp but not too wet. I've used the DinoLite in the office and it works well with dry things, it has internal LED lighting which is useful. However water on the damp cliff created a big reflection, and even when I turned the lights off it wasn't great. It was also a two person job, one holding the microscope and the other the laptop. I also had to tweek the images afterwards. So my conclusion is that its not great for photographing anything where water is involved and even after this attempt they are not as good as Barry's images...maybe ill write to Santa and ask for a good camera.

flooded mini golf course at Porthkerry (view towards the sea)

Laptop and digital microscope (with Southbya location in background) 

In other 'moss news' myself and Jon Graham start a small project for Natural England looking at Tufa springs in Gloucestershire, so feel free to chip in if you know any great sites. We have also started to prepare a paper based on our two winters of fieldwork looking at the chemical micro-habitats of Scorpidum in Wales.  That should keep me out of trouble. 

Watch House Point Cliff revisited

Southbya tophacea is now well documented on this blog, thanks largely to Gareth and Hannah's efforts. However, as we were at East Aberthaw on the weekend, homage was paid to the tufa cliff first shown to me by Julian Woodman five years ago. On my previous visit no associates were recorded, so after a little photography I noted the following direct associates, listed in decreasing levels of abundance: Eucladium verticillatum, Didymodon tophaceus, Leiocolea turbinata, Cratoneuron filicinum, Trichostomum crispulum & Gyroweisia tenuis. No doubt other species are present, but perhaps the most noteworthy species was the Gyroweisia, which I was fairly confident with in the field despite being lime-encrusted. However, a small sample was collected for checking and photos below show shoots in situ, then before and after clearing with vinegar).

male Leiocolea turbinata

Adiantum capillus-veneris looking good too

Action for Meesia

Meesia uliginosa has only ever been seen in Wales at Tywyn Aberffraw - the best dune system for bryophytes in Wales because of its highly calcareous sand and extensive slacks.  David Holyoak found it in one slack in 2001, alongside Amblyodon dealbatus and carpets of Leiocolea badensis, confirming the continued presence of Meesia in Wales following no records since 1968.  Despite David's precise (paced) directions I failed to find Meesia in 2013 and 2015, and a hands & knees search for 2 hours on Tuesday 11/10/2016 also produced no sign of this species.  The habitat has undoubtedly changed since 2001, with Leiocolea now patchy and no Amblyodon: maturation of the slack has surely caused the loss of Meesia from its one well-localised site.  Tragically this is not all - Aberffraw has also lost the last remaining Bryum calophyllum since 2001 and most of its Bryum warneum, and the lack of recent records of Catoscopium nigritum suggests that this pretty little moss has also been lost from Wales.  Even Southbya tophacea, which occurred in reasonable abundance when I first visited Aberffraw in ca. 2002 with David Stevens, has gone from the slack where we saw it.

AONB volunteers hard at work in the former Meesia slack

We have got to hope that it is not too late though: NRW have applied for EU funding to rejuvenate a suite of Welsh dunes, and large-scale action at Aberffraw may bring some of the rare mosses back from the brink.  Meesia may not be able to wait for rejuvenation to work, though, so we have tried a bit of scraping in its last slack, just in case there might be some dormant spores or buried plant fragments that could be encouraged into life.  Hannah Shaw from the Freshwater Habitats Trust organised a band of volunteers from the Anglesey AONB to dig out some shallow scrapes, carefully located to avoid damage to the bryophytes and vascular plants that remained in the slack.  Who knows if this will work, but at least we have tried!

Abietinella, with stem leaves showing features of both A. hystricosa and A. abietina

After my 2 hour crawl around the Meesia slack, marking out the scrapes, I had a short while to spare and headed north through the big (former Southbya) slack past a few relict patches of Abietinella and over a dune ridge.  Pete Jones told me last year that there was a slack with Pinguicula and Parnassia there, and as far as I knew this had never been checked by a bryologist.  To my great relief, this slack has less mature vegetation than the former Meesia site, and a richer flora, including good carpets of Leiocolea badensis and at least 20 patches of Southbya tophacea (SH36726949, but don't under any circumstances collect any!).  I only searched about 1/3 of this slack before my time ran out, so there is still a faint hope that Amblyodon or even Meesia or Catoscopium could survive there...

Southbya male and female

Glamorgan coastline complete: only two Southbya sites

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or so the saying goes. Well in the case of Southbya tophacea, at least on the Glamorgan coastline I can report there is very little evidence and perhaps a lot of absence ! Since my last post on this about a year ago (see here) myself and Hannah have complete all 45km of the Glamorgan coastline, from Penarth Head to Ogmore. We walked all of it on the beach, and she must be patient, as I checked every single bit of tufaceous cliff face I could find. All I have to report is that Southbya could only be found at the well known Aberthaw Site and at the relocated Porthkerry site. 


That said I could only search the accessible parts of the cliff and there is a lot of tufaceous habitat high up that one would imagine is ideal, so maybe its just teasing me...im not about to start abseiling as a hobby. 

I must admit my bryo identification is quite basic so dont expect a flora for the coastline, however I do have a list of 74 locations where there is tufa forming (ranging from a few cm to many meters) and there are associated byros, like Eucladium and so on. Ill happily send this list, complete with 10 FIG NGRs to anyone that wants it, I think the highlight must be Cwm Bach (SS8965471836) -mainly from the beach up the metal ladder, but I bet you've all been there already.

The big 'lump' of tufa at Cwm Bach, complete with handy bryo exploring metal ladder  for access. Dripping in bryos and worth a look.

We have also managed to survey in all of the Maidenhair fern (nice and easy for a beginner like me), a short write up in BSBI news will follow.

As for Southbya, I have only to visit Sams sites in Pembs then Ive been around all that Wales has to offer. Tim Blackstock took me out on Abberfraw, Anglesey, now the only dune site in Wales with Southbya. 

another great picture from my camera phone, but this is Southbya struggling for open space on its last dune habitat in Abberfraw (North Wales - sorry !)

On Sams suggestion, I will write a short review  for Field Bryology. I hope that some of the more distinguished people amongst us may want to review this or better still contribute (Barry maybe some of your great photos could adorn this article?). 

Ill circulate in a few months once its in final draft form.

Gareth 

‘New’ Southbya tophacea location

Both myself and Hannah have been scouring the cliffs of the Glamorgan coast now for the past two months identifying tufaceous seepgaes and the Maidenhair fern.. all with the aim of finding more Southbya or perhaps something else interesting. Julian Woodman was kind enough to take me to the well known locality at Aberthaw and now hopefully I can report on another ‘new’ locality.

I had a good look in the historical notes for Southbya and it was reported in Porthkerry in 1949-50 (Cardiff Nats) but no accurate grid references were provided.  Georges blog dated 18thJan 2015 (titled Porthkerry) provides more details of his trip along the Bull Cliff. So armed with this knowledge I suspected that the Cold Knap to Rhoose section was a good bet.  

As luck would have it we located the area that was mentioned in the Cardiff Nats…it is west of the Porthkerry park just a short hop along the coast. In total we recorded nearly 30 individual stands of Southbya….far more than I had seen at the Aberthaw section.

In total there were three separate sections all within one larger more general area (I wont put up 10 Fig NGRs just in case the blog goes public - but I will send all to whoever it is that wants them).

• Location 1 was on a dangerous cliff face, a little scrabble up a grassy bank and two stands 5cm large were identified, part sheltered by some grass. I wouldn’t recommend getting too close to this cliff face.

• Location 2 was direct on a cliff face near a small fault where recent rock fall suggested I shouldn’t hang around too long. There were 7 stands of Southbya in a 2m area.

• Location 3 – by far the largest was on a very accessible cliff face. We counted at least 20 stands of Southbya all at head height along a 8m or so section of tufa covered cliff.

Interestingly Locations 2 and 3 were on very exposed cliff face with no other vegetation providing shelter – like at Aberthaw.

I hope this is a good record for Southbya and if someone could tell me where I should register the full details (SEWBREC/ George T/ NRW ???etc etc)  that would be great. 

Porthkerry- Southbya location 1. If you squnit you can see me on the small grassy material to the left of the image 

Porthkerry Southbya Location 2. (apologies for poor photo)

Porthkerry Location 3 (where we recorded 20 individual stands)


Porthkerry Location 3

coastal tufa liverworts

A few more trips on the Glamorgan Coast over the last few weeks. Highlights include accidentally finding the most easterly record of the Maidenhair Fern Adiantum capillus-veneris associated with Pellia endiviifolia and Eucladium verticallatum on a small patch of tufa in a small crevasse in Penarth cliff (most easterly record) and only confirmed record in the ST17 square (ST1865769887). It was also at this location that gravity supplied me with a nice block of tufa, which I duly sliced in half – noting it was entirely formed from numerous layers of Pellia…I wonder how long this takes to form and could it be geochemically dated ?

Pellia endiviifolia forming its own lump of tufa 

Thus far the majority of the coastal tufa cliff face liverworts appear to be Pellia sp however Julian Woodman (NRW) took me to see the elusive Southbya tophacea at the Aberthaw-Fontygary cliff section. It took a bit of squinting but once located we could just about get close enough to it for a look with our faces pressed up against the dripping rock face.  It occurred over a 10-20 m section, not continuously but in small patches, the cliff face protected by scrub and other plants, providing shade and protection from sea spray and winds. In places it looked like it was being ‘overcome’ by other more vigorous mosses but that may just be my novice eye.

Julian Woodman up close and personal with Southbya and a lot of Maidenhair Fern

blink and you'll miss it:  Southbya tophacea in amongst bases of the Maidenhair Fern - perhaps it will be associated with the fern elsewhere across the coast??

After a spot of lunch in the Fox and Hounds we popped over to Southerndown to the Cwm Mawr stream (SS8936572263), that’s the one that forms the waterfall that cascades onto the beach below. The stream section up on the cliff is quite spectacular tufa forming stream jam packed with mosses and liverworts in amongst a thick matt of yellow iris over a 100m or so stretch.

Cwm Mawr (SS 89365 72263) view to east - at least 100m of tufa forming stream packed with goodies in between yellow iris matt. Worth a visit Barry ?

The most common liverwort at Cwm Mawr was a thallose liverwort with thallus >1cm, lacking obvious midrib (to me anyhow),  gammae in obvious receptacles, upper surface of thallus covered in air pores in the centre of polygonal markings,  the capsules are distinctive ‘mushroom shape’ and I cant seem to find this in ‘the book’ or get close using the key. Can anyone help ? Im guessing its a common species.

Cwm Mawr SS 89365 72263 tufa forming stream above the cliff. I'm stuck on the ID for this thallose liverwort can anyone help, its distinctive 'mushroom' shaped capsule should be a give away ?

Ffontygari Green Blackwort

the tufa cliff with Southbya is the rather messy looking grey area
photographed 28th September 2011

Retrospective post of the Ffontygari Southbya tophacea site, showing the tufa cliff together with dense and sparse patches of this very attractive species. Hopefully there are other extant colonies, either known by NRW, or awaiting discovery. Perhaps Graham or Sam know if a methodical survey of this stretch of coast has been undertaken?

Porthkerry

I was down at Porthkerry Country Park with the family today, and couldn't resist a quick look at the base of the main coastal cliff (Bull Cliff) - particularly as there are two previous records of Southbya tophacea from Porthkerry. Sadly there seems to be no specific indication of where the Southbya might have been. The Flora of Glamorgan states that the first record was made by Wade in 1950, and was then refound by Roy Perry in 1974, but both records are simply labelled "Porthkerry". Googling produced a bit more information from the Transactions of the Cardiff Nats:

Botanical Notes, 1949-50
"Southbya nigrella (De Not.) Spruce. On calcareous tufa, in sheltered crannies of the cliffs between Aberthaw and Fontigary, 1949, and Porthkerry, 1950, associated with the mosses Weisia verticillata and Barbula tophacea and with the Maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris), A.E.W."

Botanical Notes, 1960
"Southbya tophacea Spruce. Wet cliffs, Font-y-gary, 1949 and Porthkerry, 1950. Previously recorded as Southbya nigrella, but recently re-identified as S. tophacea and constituting the first record for that species in the British Isles."

Anyway, I couldn't resist a quick scoot along the bottom of Bull Cliff (ST0966). In the event the cliffs were soaking wet and there had been a lot of recent slumping, and I couldn't safely ascend off the beach. The slumped material contained only vascular plants. However, looking up, there did seem to be some tufa mounds high on the cliff (in the rubbish phone photo below the tufa was just below the horizontal band of scrub towards the left of the pic).  But completely inaccessible.

Bull Cliff

It is possible that the records are from the cliffs further west (near the fort) rather than Bull Cliff itself. Does anyone know? And has anyone looked for it since 1974??