Racomitrium confusion

I finished the readily identifiable queries from my Tarren y Gigfran excursion, and am now left with a pile of confusing Racomitrium samples! These are all from the sandstone block screes except the first one which was on the crag itself. Sorry for all the photos but hopefully it will help with Racomitrium queries more generally - best to click each one to enlarge it to see more detail.

1: I think this is R. aquaticum: no hair points, fairly blunt leaf tips, dark green colour, slightly papillose cells, margins plane above, recurved below.  And it was on the damp crags rather than the drier sandstone blocks.
 

2 & 3: these two growing together, near the P. alpinum (now confirmed microscopically btw). The densely tufted plant on the right seems to be R. ericoides (supra-alar cells checked: rectangular not quadrate which rules out elongatum). Some leaves with short hair points, others without them. But the block scree habitat seems a bit odd. The other has long hair points and is possibly heterostichum, though falcate leaves suggest it could be affine.
 

4 & 5: these two growing together. Both have long hair points, though the plant on the right is more slender and somewhat falcate (not so obvious in the pic). Perhaps both are R. heterostichum?
  

6: pale green with red stems, somewhat falcate leaves, long hair points. R. heterostichum?

7: this one from sandstone blocks in the woodland. Smaller than the rest, and dark green. No hair points. No idea!

Thanks for any advice.

George

Penclawdd copperworks revisit 1

Plagiomnium cuspidatum with a few scraps of Lophozia excisa

I nipped down to Penclawdd to take Alfie for his constitutional walk today and spent 40 minutes on part of the ridge mentioned below. I was very pleased to relocate Sam's Plagiomnium cuspidatum, although P. affine/undulatum? [see below] was more frequent and I also found a few scraps of Lophozia excisa. In the process of producing a more complete list for the site I was struck by the Bryum below, which looks very kunzei-like to me. Whilst calcifuge species were more prominent, there were scattered patches of calcicoles; associates in the immediate vicinity of the Bryum included P. affine, B. capillare, Hypnum cupressiforme var. lacunosum, H. jutlandicum, Ceratodon purpureus & Barbula convoluta. Under the microscope the leaf margins are very weakly bordered with a few tiny, but sharply pointed teeth distally. the margins are weakly recurved towards the leaf base which is pigmented red. The single unripe sporophyte may be a bit of a negative as I'm not sure if fruiting is known in Britain? As always any comments are welcome.

Bryum caespiticium and spot the Lophozia excisa!

Re: Plagiomniun aff/und - I often get muddled by these two as stunted undulatum looks very similar to affine to me - what is the best way to separate them in the field?

Lost records...

Today came across an old notebook of mine with some bryo records from by the Afon Nedd in 2011 which don't appear to have been copied into my dataset or to BRC - interestingly I made a note about finding Anastrophyllum hallerianum growing with Nowellia on a boulder (all other times I have seen it it has been on tree trunks or decaying bark) - presumably on a skin of humic material. Also Campylopus fragilis nearby (and only about 2km from Glam boundary).

I pulled out a few Glam records from my herbarium which may be of interest - Campylopus atrovirens (I briefly mentioned this a while back and had a stab at a grid ref when I didn't realise I had a specimen) and Lophozia incisa (latter on rotting sphagnum with Kurzia pauciflora) from wet heathy habitat at SS489907 near Cefn Bryn on 24 March 2004. These would have been in a batch of records sent to Roy, so hopefully more might turn up at some point.   Also, one I mentioned to Sam earlier - back in June 1995 I visited Kenfig and walked from Centre via south side of pool and across to the sea - I had both Drepanocladus sendtneri and D. lycopodiodes (I clearly remember dense mats of the first hanging from Salix repens in a dried out slack) - unfortunately I didn't make a note of grid ref.  If I had to guess it might be somewhere around SS7980 or just to north.  The lycopodiodes, if it still exisits, may be a good distance from Sam's recent records from north of pool.

Glad to see some of you managed to get out looking at bryos over Xmas - I have been busying myself with family history again and my only attempt to get out to look at bryos was foiled when family decided at last minute to come along for the walk, but did spot some interesting habitats which i'll go back to at some point. Spring has come early in Llangynidr - quite a lot of hawthorn and blackthorn had leafy shoots by end of December and I saw first globeflower leaves (it grows by the R Usk) on 2 Jan, so that too must have been visible in December, plus a couple of primroses flowering well by the river - crazy!  

Graham

Penclawdd copperworks slag ridge

This bulbiferous Pohlia was growing on a slag ridge on the saltmarsh at Penclawdd. Associates included an interesting mix such as Archidium alternifolium, Didymodon fallax, Riccia sorocarpa, Scapania irrigua & Bryum cf gemmiferum (tbc). The Pohlia bulbils appeared to be restricted to singles in axils and were 350µm long, the plants were all very small with striking red stems and yellowy leaves.
[NB. I previously posted a short note on the Gower Wildlife blog about this site HERE]

Bryum dichotomum (barnseii form)

Archidium in spring tide inundation zone amongst Plantago coronata

An itch that needed to be scratched

I've been wanting to have a proper look at Tarren y Gigfran (ST09U), an area of sandstone crags and block screes to the south of Aberfan, for some time - and I finally got the chance yesterday. There were only two previous bryo records from the site: Andreaea rothii ssp. falcata recorded by Wade in 1958, and Racomitrium lanuginosum recorded by me on a casual visit in 2012.

On the way to the crags was a small wooded cwm filled with huge sandstone blocks.

These supported a good range of acidophiles including abundant Scapanea nemorea on some of the blocks.

Sandstone blocks with abundant Scapanea nemorea

To reach the east-facing northern crag I had to cross a large area of block screes, which supported abundant Racomitrium heterostichum, occasional A. rothii ssp. falcata, small patches of Ptilidium ciliare and Scapania gracilis, and a couple of patches of what I think is Polytrichastrum alpinum (see photo below - stems were branched and look good for it, but I suppose I should attempt a leaf section to confirm).

Sandstone blocks and crags beyond

Andreaea rothii ssp. falcata

Ptilidium ciliare

Polytrichastrum alpinum (tbc)

Polytrichastrum alpinum (tbc)

The northern crags showed absolutely no evidence of base enrichment, but a nice range of calcifuge mosses were present including frequent Cynodontium bruntonii and a couple of cushions of Bartramia pomiformis.

Cynodontium bruntonii

Bartramia pomiformis

The itch isn't quite scratched as I didn't have time to look at the southern crag, which is north-east facing and longer than the northern crag. Another time...

New Year bash

After a week away in Cornwall I was ready for a bit of a bryo outing back home, and although I couldn't match Sam's feats I managed a brief bit of square bashing this afternoon in ST0979. This square falls within ST07Z which has only 12 taxa recorded previously (on CCW surveys).

I started with some grotting along a lane beneath the M4, where Lunularia was abundant, then worked north into nicer territory at Capel Llanilltern churchyard.

The highlight was a most unexpected couple of tufts of Racomitrium aciculare on a sloping gravestone, in a very dry looking position. Associates on the grave were Grimmia pulvinata and a single patch of Frullania dilatata.

Other minor highlights among the 45 species recorded were Cirriphyllum piliferum at the edge of the churchyard and Neckera complanata, which was abundant on Ash trunks in the base of the lane-side hedge.

Freezing Fun

Icy Thamnobryum by a stream.

The freezing nights between Christmas and New Year weren't exactly ideal for bryology, but at least we didn't get moss-burying carpets of snow!  I spent a day recording in three tetrads south of Trelech in western Carms - SN22T, SN22X and SN22Y - getting 80+ in the first two and ca70 in the third.  This area is typical of the 'dairy zone', but the valleys have footpaths so give up some of their diversity.

Epiphyte highlights were abundant Frullania tamarisci and Neckera pumila, along with Lejeunea cavifolia.
Lane banks supported Marsupella emarginata in two places and one colony of Bryum sauteri, as well as Cirriphyllum piliferum and Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus.
Didymodon nicholsonii grew in abundance on tarmac and there were a few patches of Syntrichia latifolia in one place.
A wooded flush with abundant Golden Saxifrage was locus classicus for large Aneura cf euromaxima/pellioides.
Fissidens celticus, F. curnovii, Heterocladium heteropterum and Hookeria lucens were present near streams, and one river bank held Epipterygium tozeri. 

The dairy plateaux above were dull as ditch water, and even the valleys were hardly riveting, but another three tetrads have been ticked off leaving just 92 unvisited (by me) in Carms.

Aneura cf euromaxima in a wooded flush. 

A poor photo but showing the typical large size and undulate margins.