Pembrokeshire Rare Bryophyte Register

I've been working on a register for Pembrokeshire, which I'll make available to anybody who is interested via a sharefile link if you email me. There's a word document with an illustrated page for each species, and an accompanying spreadsheet of records.

The blog will be discontinued as it hasn't quite generated the enthusiasm for local bryology that I'd hoped for - thanks to the handful of you who did read though. 

 Allt Clyn-Gwyn, Llangolman

In search of Atlantic woodland in Pembrokeshire, I found a spot on the map along the Eastern Cleddau south of Llangolman where the contours were steep and north-facing. It looked good as soon as I arrived. Any site with Wilson's filmy-fern is likely to have some interesting bryos, but when it's climbing the oak trees it's definitely worth a proper look. 

There is a quartzite crag below an old slate quarry, and this is wooded with  birch and oak, with deep mounds of Sphagnum subnitens and pleurocarps beneath old bilberry. The crag had a large population of Dicranum scottianum on the east side, which extended on to the oak trunks in places. The oaks also had Plagiochila spinulosa, and, less frequently, Plagiochila bifaria. Most strikingly, there was an abundance of Lepidozia cupressina, on the rocks, oak bases, bilberry stems and even amongst Racomitrium lanuginosum on consolidated slate waste. Clearly the largest population in the county, and good to find it after missing it at Treffgarne the other week. 

Lepidozia cupressina, growing epiphytically on oak

Also in abundance was Cephalozia lunulifolia, and one patch had some Kurzia trichoclados - non-fertile but fortunately with bulbils. This was first seen in the county at Coed Tycanol by Francis Rose in 1965; Sam added a couple of records more recently. Previously only recorded from Ty Canol was Scapania umbrosa, a few tiny shoots of which were on one of the many oak logs, along with Barbilophozia attenuata, Lepidozia reptans, a single small patch of Orthodontium lineare and a small amount of Odontoschisma denudatum. All in all, a successful outing to a previously unknown site to end the winter recording with.

Wilson's Filmy-fern on oak trunk

Dicranum scottianum dominates this crag

 Coed Rheidol

A couple of jobs up north gave me an excuse to spend Sunday afternoon up the Rheidol valley to the north of Devil's Bridge. I wasn't expecting to add anything to this well-recorded site, but Bosanquet's rule held true - the best sites always do have more.

Drepanolejeunea hamatifolia

The single patch of Drepanolejeunea on a riverside rockface just downstream of Temple Mine doesn't appear in the census catalogue for Ceredigion, but the late Chris Forster-Brown reported a tiny patch from an oak further south during his survey of the NNR in 2020. 

The mine itself had Grimmia donniana, and a Pohlia with brown bulbils which had me hoping for andalusica - unfortunately just annontina under the microscope. I failed to notice any of the Gymnomitrion obtusum previously recorded here. A little further upstream, I found some Hylocomiastrum umbratum, Dicranum scottianum with ripe capsules and Lepidozia cupressina; I also re-recorded a patch of Plagiochila heterophylla found by Tom.

Plagiochila heterophylla

A few yards away, a leaning oak tree held a couple of good liverwort patches which included Scapania umbrosa and some potential Lophozia longidens, although I'm struggling to find the red gemmae to clinch the latter (finally! see photo below).  My recent find in south Pembs is the only other modern Welsh record, and it hadn't been recorded in Ceredigion before.

Lophozia longidens and habitat

Lastly, some dry crags on the valley side had a small Cynodontium which needs further work. Difficult without capsules, but it's unistratose and smooth-celled - possibly tenellum. 

Bryum cf. gemmiparum again

 

A spring tide gave me a chance to revisit the cove near Tenby with putative Bryum gemmiparum. Although there are a few cushions on irrigated shale rockfaces, I didn't manage to find any bulbils so it still won't be confirmed. These photos do look convincingly similar to those of the real thing though.

 Treffgarne and Rosebush

There's a flooded quarry by the main road just north of Treffgarne which I'd kayaked on once, but never mossed in. Lots of Lophozia excisa fruiting happily on the track on the way in. A climb up to the millstone grit crag at the back of the quarry initially seemed disappointing, but I collected a specimen of a small, slender pleurocarp from the base of it which appears to be a good candidate for Homomallium incurvatum. I may be guilty of showing my workings again.....(I was, as Tom Blockeel helpfully confirmed - although macroscopically right for Homomallium, the alar cells are too irregular and incrassate - the illustrations in Smith's flora are apparently very misleading).

A somewhat similar but slightly larger pleurocarp from the wooded area below has deciduous branches and appears to be Platygyrium repens which would be a county first. 

On to Treffgarne Tors, where I located Bazzania trilobata and Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, but not the Lepidozia cupressina. Various patches of Lepidozia reptans, but if its uncommon relative is still there, it's not doing very well. I carried on to Puncheston, where the common at Waun Fawr is definitely in trouble - rank Molinia over the once lovely flushes. I went on to Rosebush Quarry instead, where the Cynodontium tenellum appeared to be flourishing, and cushions of Sphagnum russowii were looking good.

Sphagnum russowii mixed with fimbriatum

Cynodontium tenellum

The last moss of the day, from lime mortar on an old quarry building, proved to be the most interesting. The long mucro on this Aloina seems to make it Aloina obliquifolia, a European species which isn't on the British list. Such mucronate specimens are assigned to Aloina rigida var. mucronata in the UK, despite being distinguished as A. obliquifolia in the European checklist. It certainly looks different to and much larger than the blunt-leaved rigida that I'm familiar with from Pendine and the south Pembs limestone. There was only one small patch of it, but it had ripe capsules.

Aloina obliquifolia