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