Tywi Forest

Clear-fell at Ochr-fawr

I've been up in the Tywi Forest east of Tregaron for the past couple of weeks, recording peat depths to inform restoration of sitka spruce plantations to bog as part of a National Peatland Action Programme. Let's hope that NRW are able to make headway with restoration in other plantations too.

Unsurprisingly, the clear-fells tend to be hard-going bryologically as well as physically. There are already pockets of Sphagnum-rich vegetation, sometimes with Sphagnum capillifolium and papillosum alongside the more regular palustre, fallax, fimbriatum and subnitens. Orthodontium lineare was frequent on ditch edges and stumps, although hardly troubling the Campylopus introflexus for the title of most aggressive non-native species. The only less common species found were a couple of cushions of Dicranum fuscescens on peaty soil, and a small patch of Tetraplodon mnioides on a presumed old fox scat atop a prominent log.

Tetraplodon mnioides growing through Hypnum jutlandicum

Orthodontium lineare

A bit of crawling alongside the limestone forest tracks produced patches of Weissia rutilans, often mixed in with Archidium, which I've always thought could have been called Scouse Moss (bit of a niche joke perhaps....). Also a small patch of Anomobryum julaceum on one damp, silty edge - perhaps a slightly atypical habitat, and I was even mildly disappointed that it wasn't Aongstroemia when I put it under the microscope.

Anomobryum julaceum was on the track edge here

Finally, a quick wander off onto an adjoining hillside produced the first Bryum bornholmense for Ceredigion, a colonist of open ground amongst burnt Molinia tussocks.