Foel Drygarn

I went looking for Sam's small patch of Kiaeria blytti on the old hill-fort at Foel Drygarn, but mis-interpreted the location and found a new sub-population instead. There was a healthy population under a few rocks on the eastern cairn - at least 20 small tufts in one place, several with young fruits and a few old capsules as well. 

Kiaeria blyttii

Confusion reigned when I tried to confirm it using the key in Smith, as the basal cells on some shoot seemed too thick-walled and porose, the alar cells well-differentiated, and the old capsules were striate.  The nerve sections also seemed to be a closer match for one of the rare Scottish species, starkei or glacialis. 

Kiaeria 

Thankfully, Tom pointed out that either species would be desperately unlikely, and I eventually located a Czech key by Jan Kucera which seemed more authoritative than those in Smith or the Flora of North America. Transverse sections of the alar cells are needed, and these are unistratose in blytti and partially bistratose and bistratose in starkei and glacialis respectively.  Mine, unfortunately, were unistratose and order was restored....more lessons learned!

section of alar cells

Forestry Tracks in north Pembs

Dipping briefly into a couple of plantations in the north of the county recently has yielded a few nice records. Frenni-fawr near Crymych had some Ditrichum lineare on an acidic track edge with Diplophyllum obtusifolium and Pohlia drummondii. It's a second site in the county for the Ditrichum and not too far from the old slate quarry which holds the original population. There's a closer quarry which may have supplied the stone for the track - perhaps there's some there too.

A wooded valley south of Maenclochog had a little used damp track with plenty of Blasia pusilla and Anthoceros punctatus, only a second county site for the former. Pohlia lescuriana, Pohlia drummondii and Ditrichum pusillum were here too.

Rhizoidal gemma of Ditrichum pusillum

No luck with my search for Daltonia on streamside willows, but there was a bonus in the form of Violet Waxcap Chromosera (Hygrocybe) viola on a clay streambank. I think only the second Welsh record, the first being from my farm.

Violet Waxcap

 Cell Howell

It's a bit of a trek south from Ceibwr Bay, Moylegrove to reach this rugged coast, but it's a bryological hot-spot and well worth the effort. Yesterday's mission was to refind Sam's first county record of Philonotis rigida, and his only one of Gymnomitrion concinnatum.

I couldn't find the latter at the recorded 12-figure grid reference, despite searching the Diplophyllum albicans patches over rock outcrops in the area. Fortunately, there were some good patches on an inclined slab further west. 

Gymnomitrion concinnatum

A drier outcrop below this flushed slab had a bonus in the shape of several tufts of Glyphomitrium daviesii, a new record for the site and only the third county record. It grows in the open on the rock here, in contrast to the holes on tors on Mynydd Preseli.

The Philonotis rigida was at Sam's grid reference, although now perhaps in a more vegetated area with Yorkshire fog, bramble and willow starting to close in over the shallow gully. I did some light gardening to help it along for another year or two.   

Philonotis rigida

Many of the shale boulders on these slopes have Coscinodon cribrosus, which comes in a confusing array of forms. In addition to the typical hoary cushions are small muticous plants with rounded leaves - Sam's flora describes these plants as male, but many were sporting ripening capsules.

Coscinodon cribrosus