Indoor mosses

I found Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans with ripe capsules in an orchid pot in a friend’s house today. At least I assume this is what it is, as while I don’t think there’s anything else that’s native it could be, there’s always the possibility of it being an alien import? The plants appeared smaller than typical elegans to me plus I couldn’t find any branchlets in the small sample I collected.

Also, last weekend I saw Leptodictyum riparium in fruit and growing well in the indoor water display at Wyevale Garden Centre in Llansamlet.

Lejeunea query resolved

Well I finally had another attempt at sectioning the Lejeunea stem and managed this result. <=6 medullary cells seems to be a good pointer for mandonii. I'm still not terribly convinced but wonder if there's a referee for this group?

stem in top half of section

Glamorgan Tetrad update

Dave Slade sent me another sync so thought I'd bring you all up to date, although he's still trying to figure out why Sam's 2013 records haven't been sent my way yet ... all in good time. There are 624 tetrads in Glamorgan and we now have 192 squares with 60+ species (31%), so almost a third of the way towards the nominal target! For ref  we have 144 squares with 70+ species (23%) and 51 squares with a 100 or more species (8%).

If you open up an image and use the left & right arrow keys, you can flick between the images and see progress since the last update much more effectively. Please ignore the dates on the maps and you may see some reductions in tetrad totals, these are mostly due to tidying up of boundary records.

Jungermannia?

I put the '?' in the title to cover myself in case it's not a Jungermannia.

This is another one from Merthyr Common last week. It was growing as a dense patch on a wet, shady  rock face (sandstone/shale, fairly base rich).

I thought this might be J. pumila. This size is about right (stems 1.5-2mm across) and it is not aromatic (verified by Liz who has a better sense of smell than me). However, I can't find any fertile material, so perhaps it is not possible to confirm it is this species and not J. atrovirens, or something else entirely.

Comments welcome, thanks.

Hook-leaf query

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but this hook-leaved moss from Merthyr Common last week has me stumped. It was growing in a flush (or near the stream that ran along the bottom of it - I can't quite remember now) which was probably quite acidic.

I was sure this was going to be Warnstorfia exannulata but there is no trace of a nerve on most of the leaves (some have a faint short double nerve), and I can't see anything that fits the bill. Leaves are 2mm long, hooked but not forming complete loops. Suggestions appreciated, thanks.

Mewslade

This small winter soakway supports an odd little community with frequent Riccia subbifurca and Fossombronia caespitiformis (formerly hustontii). For ref, the most abundant species in the quadrat were Plantago coronopus and Erodium cicutarium, with other spp of interest including Scleropodium touretii, Lunularia cruciata, Sedum acre, Riccia sorocarpa and Scilla verna.

Gwrhyd

I was up on the Gwrhyd yesterday and had a quick look at a site I came across in 2011; a small area of sloping Sandstone rocks in acid grassland. The Bryum alpinum was still going strong and was blood red in the bright sunshine, although the Lasallia pustulata was all crisped, but still distinctive. Without any exciting new finds the total for the square was taken to 108.