After the Rhodies have 'gone'

Following the clearance of blanketing thickets of Rhododendron in parts of Cwmdulais a few years back, I have made a few casual records of what has been recolonising. The only lower plants (which currently provide the bulk of the ground cover) noted in a small sampling area during a casual Christmas Eve stroll, were (in decreasing levels of abundance) Campylopus introflexus, Cladonia chlorophaea agg., Dicranella heteromalla, Hypnum cupressiforme var. cupressiforme, Polytrichum juniperinum, Cladonia coniocraea and Dicranum scoparium. Clearly there is more diversity than this in the valley (see my previous post HERE on this subject), but to date recolonisation of cleared Rhododendron in the valley has been by a rather limited suite of species. Needless to say the Rhododendron is showing good signs of recovery!

A small, mildly basic flush at SN61730358 did provide a point of interest amongst this predominantly acid tolerant vegetation, with species noted (again in decreasing levels of abundance) including Dicranella varia, Riccardia chamedryfolia, Aneura pinguis, Cratoneuron filicinum, Didymodon fallax, Philonotis Fontana, Didymodon tophaceus, Didymodon insulanus, Pellia endiviifolia, Pohlia wahlenbergii var. wahlenbergii, Bryum pseudotriquetrum & Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum. I'm not sure if this vegetation comprises recent colonists or was hiding beneath the Rhodendrons prior to clearance?

Memorial Mosses

For the last five years I have driven past a collection of sad-looking teddy bears strapped to a tree in Gorseinon, which mark the spot of a fatal accident. Over time the teddies have been colonised by bryophytes and not wishing to be disrespectful I have put aside my natural curiosity to take a closer look. However, as the shrine has not been tendered for several years, today my conscience allowed me to take a look. This little community of memorial mosses included Bryum capillare, Ceratodon purpureus, Microlejeunea ulicina, Orthotrichum affine, O. diaphanum, Syntrichia laevipila & Zygodon conoideus.

Flat Holm Island (summer)

I’ve been out to Flat Holm lots of times, firstly volunteering as an enthusiastic  17 year old, then following that whenever I had the chance. It is a fascinating place, packed with history and lots of gulls too. According to the information there are 20,000 nesting pairs, all toing and froing from ‘chippy ally’ in Cardiff back out to the island.

The grand total of bryophytes recorded on Flat Holm was, until recently one…or maybe it was two, either way I felt confident that even I could make a useful contribution. So I jumped at the chance to go with SEWBREC for their BioBlitz back in August 2017. 

The islands varied past land use means there is plenty of hard-core paths, tarmac, derelict buildings, concrete and limestone block structures, but there are very few – well almost no, natural water features. I have found only one persistent ‘drip’ that lasts year round, in the appropriately, if not enthusiastically  named ‘dripping cove’, where with some luck you will also find a small patch of Eucladium verticillatum hanging onto the underside of the cliff face. The very overgrown WWII defence ditch around the lighthouse also provides one of the few sheltered spots on the island capable of producing any humidity, and the limestone/soil banks are home to plenty of Fissidens taxifolius var. taxifolius and the trees and shrubs ideal habitats for any epiphytes. I’m sure that there is plenty more to find in the right season or with an expert eye, but until then here are the limited ‘highlights’ of the summertime trip;

Brachythecium populem, Barbula unguiculata, Bryum argenteum, Eucladium verticillatum, Fissidens taxifolius var. taxifolius, Hypnum lacunosum, Kindbergia praelonga, Metzgeria furcate, Orthotrichum diaphanum, Plagiomnium affine, Rhynchostegiella tenella, Rhynchostegium megapolitanum, Syntrichia ruralis subs. ruralis, Tortula moralis, Trichostomum brachydontium and Wessia brachcarpa var oliqua.

As always I was very grateful for Georges and Sam’s help with confirming some of the IDs and pointing out where I had gone hopelessly wrong,  it really is the only way to learn when you are starting out – so hats off to them again. New years resolution is to be able to confidently record in a local area without making too many mistakes.........



One small area of Eucladium verticillatum forming near a persistent drip in the 'Dripping cove'.





Flat Holm Island (image copyright of RCAHMW)









A frosty day at Llantrisant Common

On 28th December I spent a sunny day recording bryophytes on Llantrisant Common with Karen Wilkinson and Caroline O'Rourke.

Although the weather was beautiful the ground frost never cleared - Karen was reduced to ripping up chunks of frozen Sphagnum to take home to identify. We probably missed some smaller species as a result - there was no chance of picking through Sphagnum in the field to look for small liverworts, for example.

We covered the western bits of the common and succeeded in upping tetrad ST08M from 46 to 75 taxa. The existing site list was largely made up of records from CCW vegetation surveys in the 90s, topped up with a few grots I recorded in 2015. There were no epiphytes on the list however, and these made up the bulk of the additions. We'd hoped to re-find Scapania paludicola, recorded in several places by CCW, and got excited by some promising Scapania in M15 wet heath, but this proved on closer inspection to be S. irrigua.

The highlight of the day was a small patch of Atrichum crispum close to a stream (5th Glamorgan tetrad, top photos below). Other finds included Calliergonella lindbergii (below left) among short grass in several places, Pseudephemerum nitidum and vegetative Physcomitrium pyriforme (hopefully safe to record) rubbing shoulders in a rushy ditch (below right) and Orthotrichum stramineum on an old willow.

 

Karen recorded 6 species of Sphagnum including S. fimbriatum and S. fallax new for the site, as well as some beautiful wine-red S. capillifolium.

We strayed into the southern part of the common, which falls within ST08L, and took the total for that tetrad from 53 to 63 taxa. We didn't have time to explore the extensive eastern side of the common and are planning a return visit sometime...

Slagtastic Loughor

After several years of failing to find Scopelophila cataractae in the Swansea Valley, I was filled with great joy today when I came across a lovely population in the Loughor Estuary at Bynea. There were many patches scattered on the two fingers of slag dumped on the saltmarsh, as indicated by the yellow areas shown above (SS558989), the dashed green line showing the Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries SAC boundary. Whilst the bulk of the material I found was technically outside the SAC (i.e. the yellow patches shown 'within' the western finger), it would seem unlikely this narrow bit of ground would ever be interfered with. Although, a small amount of freshly dumped material was noted close to where the two fingers meet, so it may be worth considering notifying the owners.

The main associate was Weissia controversa var. densifolia, with occasional patches of Bryum cf pallescens and some interesting lichens. An odd-looking Pohlia (I'm suspecting it's just young annotina but I will investigate further) was frequent, growing in dense and quite deep cushions with tightly packed appressed leaves. The shoots were noted to fragment very easily, possibly as a means of dispersing? Any thoughts on this one appreciated. [Des Callaghan kindly informed me this is Pohlia nutans fo. gemmiclada]

Finally a photo of a very smart lichen that was growing over (seemingly eating up!) the cushions of Weissia - again any suggestions appreciated: 

Odd organism on Rhizomnium

These yellow, gemmae-like structures were found directly attached to a protonemal mat of what I assume was Rhizomnium punctatum. I've really struggled to even identify the phlyum of the organism and have wondered if they might even be galls. There are multiple  growths all similar in character and have kept their shape and colour even after being in the dry state for 10 days or more. Any help in identifying them would be greatly appreciated.

1. Structure of growths on decorticated wood.

2. Cross section through one of the growths showing that they are attached to the moss rather than the substrate.

3. Growth with multicellular propagules and protonema

4. Propagules - NB minor tick marks 2.5 μm

Epiphyte on an epiphyte

I've been keeping half an eye out for specimens of the Ulota crispa complex, but all I've found recently has been U. bruchii. However, a specimen of bruchii found today at Taf Fechan Forest (SO048167, VC42) was enlivened by a tiny plant of Colura calyptrifolia which was growing on one of the old, brown leaves at the base of the cushion. This was at 400m asl in a fairly open situation at the edge of the forestry plantation.