Crawling through conifers

An NRW project to restore a coniferised peatland at Abercregan took me deep into Hipkin territory on 9th February.  I'm afraid I didn't bother doing any general recording, particularly when Barry kindly emailed me the 120+ strong tetrad list that included Glyncorrwg and the Abercregan peatland, but I did make a few additions...

Most of my time was spent documenting the diversity and abundance of bryophytes growing in deep-ploughed Molinia under a poor crop of Spruce: an activity that involved crawling on hands and knees under low branches, and getting spruce twigs tangled in my hair and down my back.  There was an impressive bryomass and a reasonable bryodiversity, but the predominant species were Diplophyllum albicans, Hypnum jutlandicum and Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans.  A few patches of Sphagnum rubellum, locally abundant Lophozia incisa, some Cephalozia connivens on peaty ditch sides, and some Spruce trunks plastered with L. ventricosa (as well as Diplophyllum and Colura) were probably the most interesting things I saw on the peatland.

I descended towards Glyncorrwg through a pine plantation and took a quick look at a very mossy Pine that sported a single patch of Sanionia uncinata (new for the tetrad) on one twig and several patches of the oceanic lichen Hypotrachyna laevigata (new for the hectad according to NBN).  A little further on there was a fallen spruce snagged in the canopy, with a very nice mossy trunk; a quick scan revealed fruiting Sematophyllum substrumulosum at 430m altitude, way higher than any previous British record.  I kept Daltonia in mind, but failed on that front.

Cwar Du - a boost to SN90F

I spent my lunch hour (well actually a split 20 minutes before and after my main work) recording in SN90F, east of the A4061 between Treherbert and Craig y Llyn.  This was slightly pointless because there were already over 70 species recorded from the tetrad, but it looked like good ground as I drove past and I thought I'd add something.  In the end I found about 95 species, and there were 14 on the previous list that I didn't see (mostly plantation & track species), so the tetrad is now nicely over the 100 mark and can probably be regarded as 'done'.

First stop was a small, sealed-up, graffiti-covered building surrounded by sculptures, where I recorded various ruderals including Tortella tortuosa, Orthotrichum cupulatum and Schistidium apocarpum on concrete.  A yomp up through scree with 4 cushions of Scapania gracilis led to the Cwar Du cliff base at 450m altitude, where Ditrichum zonatum new for Glamorgan awaited me.  Nearby were Campylopus atrovirens, a small form of Gymnocolea inflata, some Lophozia sudetica, and a bit of Rhabdoweisia crispata.  A rowan added Cololejeunea minutissima and other common epiphytes to the list.

After I'd finished my work near Glyncorrwg I stopped briefly at Nant y Bwlch, just down from Cwar Du, to add some stream mosses to the list.  Hygrohypnum ochraceum and Hyocomium armoricum were present in the stream, Ptychomitrium polyphyllum was on boulders, Polytrichum alpinum was on a low cliff, and slight base enrichment was indicated by a few shoots of Trichostomum brachydontium among Amphidium mougeotii.  Perhaps the highlight of this area was some Lophozia bicrenata with perianths on humus under heather - a thoroughly unpredictable species.

So, a worthwhile stop given that I didn't have time to properly bash an unknown tetrad.

Mystery moss?

I revisited the Mynydd Lliw concrete bases site again this afternoon with Alfie to take another look at the troublesome Didymodon. It implausibly looks more like icmadophilus than anything else, though I'm sure a simple solution will come eventually. I've collected a fresh sample to check...

Anyway, I also collected what looked like an odd Weissia, though with 14mm long setae and elongate unripe capsules I guess it's not. No doubt it's something obvious, but I'm tired and stumped! I guess it's one of the Pottiales and the cells are quite papillose. It was growing on damp gravelly spoil adjacent to the concrete bases, the main associate being Trichostomum crispulum. Hopefully someone can put me out of my misery...

Fairwood airport

I made a brief stop-off on Tuesday to look at the section of concrete runway outside the perimeter fence SS573910 at Fairwood. This revealed small quantities of Plagiomnium cuspidatum (photos above) growing with more abundant associates that included Brachythecium albicans, Ceratodon purpureus, Climacium dendroides (photo 7), Didymodon insulanus, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, Syntrichia ruralis var. ruraliformis and some attractive tufts of Bryum dichotomum var. barnesii (photos 5 & 6). Campylium protensum and Ctenidium molluscum were frequent along the adjacent track.

Hillend ORS

Today I finally checked a few specimens I brought back from a 1 hour visit to Hillend, at the northern end of Rhossili Down,on the 4th (the area searched shown above). There is a nice rocky ridge in this area, marking the geological boundary of the Brownstones formation and the Upper ORS. The Frullania on the rocks looked interesting and one of my samples had a mix of tamarisci, dilatata and microphylla var. microphylla, the latter new for the county. I'm pretty confident this is correct and whilst a barely detectable fragrance put a little doubt in my mind, everything else seems spot on. The flat leaves seem to be a good field feature. Occasional burgundy patches of Frullania were dotted around the rocks and whilst I'm not 100% sure which rock my sample came from, I suspect it was that shown in the above photo (approximately SS41939097). I'm sure further searches will reveal further patches with microphylla mixed in. Other species noted included some nice patches of Grimmia trichophylla, Pterogonium gracile and Scleropodium touretii.

G. trichophylla

coastal lichens were much more prominent than bryos.

rocks with Pterogonium, Isothecium myosuroides and Hypnum cupressiforme var. resupinatum

Aberthaw shingle

A few spare hours on Tuesday took me to the shingle beach at West Aberthaw - the draw being that this tetrad (ST06D) had no previous bryo records despite obvious potential.

Things started well with Scorpiurium circinatum and fruiting Rhynchostegium megapolitanum on a stony bank by the car park, as well as a mystery Bryum sp. (photo below - not sure if this is B. kunzei or another member of the caespiticium group - any comments welcome).

The broad leaf of Rhynchostegium megapolitanum

Scorpiurium circinatum

West of the car park, an area of ruderal vegetation behind the shingle beach was awash with small, fruiting acrocarps, including Microbryum davallianum, M. rectum, Tortula protobryoides and Phascum cuspidatum.

Microbryum rectum

Microbryum davallianum

Microbryum davallianum spores

Tortula protobryoides

Further west still, the back of the shingle beach was quite well vegetated, the bryophytes including Aloina aloides (fruiting), Tortella nitida, lots of Scorpiurium and some more M. rectum.

Tortella nitida on old rope among shingle

This left me a little time to try and add some epiphytes in the north of the tetrad, but these were few and far between - I couldn't even find any Cryphaea. Of more interest was yet more Scorpiurium in Gileston Churchyard and small cushions of Gymnostomum aeruginosum on the mortar of a railway bridge.

Many of the species mentioned above have their Glamorgan headquarters on the South Gower limestones and few records from further east - but this is partly due to the Vale being badly under-recorded. Lots of work to do here!

Delayed Fossombronia

I noticed a few bryophytes colonising the edge of a newly created pond at Graig farm near Llandovery in early December.  Everything was a bit mashed up by trampling sheep so I put some of the greening mud into a pot and then dried it to check later. I finally got round to looking at it today and on rehydration I was very pleased to find the battered remains of a Fossombronia.  Seems to be F.wondraczeckii, which is a new one for me.  Apparently several more ponds have been formed there since my December visit so there will be lots more mud to look at in future visits.  Hopefully I won't leave the specimens so long before checking them next time.