Monday 3 May 2021

 Bryum dichotomum 'Cornish variety'

I've been clearing my desk before summer's bryological hiatus, and I came across a funny Bryum which I'd collected three years ago from the yard at Castle Bay Seafoods near Tier's Cross. It has dense clusters of oval brown gemmae in the leaf axils, but otherwise looks like Bryum dichotomum. I recalled David Holyoak had a picture of something like it in his new Bryum book. Sure enough, the specimen matches a rare taxa known only from Cornwall and the Netherlands, which is only tentatively and provisionally placed within B. dichotomum. DNA work failed to distinguish it from B. dichotomum, but the same study also failed to differentiate B. gemmilucens from either, so perhaps there is some more work to be done there. The seafood company, incidentally, are exporting shellfish to France and Spain, so there's plenty of opportunity for importing mosses on lorry tyres too. The sea storksbill on the yard is one of the few inland populations in the county.


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