Pendine and Llanteg

A morning's work carrying out an ecological watching-brief at the Pendine Range this week, to ensure that the petalwort population doesn't get overly disturbed by ongoing works. Although the yard at the end of the test track here is the most heavily disturbed part of the dunes and carries the rarest species....

I'd found Aloina rigida here before Christmas, and it was now fruiting happily on the top of a small sand pile. New to the site, and the county, was Bryum dyffrynense - two patches of which were in a particularly unglamorous location.

Bryum dyffrynense and location by concrete blocks

Aloina rigida and location

On my way home, I stopped near Llanteg on the Pembs / Carms border. I wanted to check on the Fissidens rivularis in the stream near Ledgerland which I'd found here a few years back - the only site in the county. It was still on two rocks, despite a new concrete bridge having been built between the two.  

Fissidens rivularis on rock in stream

Heading downstream, there are some rocks which I'd never been to - the frost-shattered remains of a valley-side tor in the Millstone Grit series. Sam had refound an old record of Dicranum scottianum here, as well as some D. fuscescens. However, I wasn't expecting it to be quite as interesting as it proved to be. 

Ledgerland boulder-field

After an hour, the list which I'd put together would have looked respectable for one of the tors on Mynydd Preseli. The two Dicranums, Plagiochila punctata, Scapania scandica, Bazzania trilobata, Barbilophozia attenuata, Frullania fragilifolia, Polytrichastrum alpinum, Bryum alpinum, Racomitrium lanuginosum, R. ericoides, R. fasciculare....most of these were new hectad records, and highly disjunct from the nearest populations. Lepidozia cupressina - a second county record - was a particularly nice find alongside the abundance of L. reptans. Straying off the bryophytes, there were a few patches of Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, new to the south of the county, and a good looking lichen flora to my untrained eye, including Bunodophoron melanocarpum.

Bunodophoron melanocarpum

Tunbridge Filmy-fern

A small shaded outcrop below the boulders had a few small tufts of an Orthodontium alongside the filmy fern, which should rightly and properly have been the rare O. gracile in this habitat. After some fiddly sectioning though, I sadly concluded that there were stereid cells, and it was instead the non-native O. lineare. There was some compensation however, as a few strands of Isopterygiopsis pulchella were included in the sample - a new VCR. 

The icing on the cake, however, came in the form of a Lophozia tipped with reddish-purple gemmae hiding under one boulder. Unless I'm very much mistaken, this is Lophozia longidens - previously considered extinct in Wales. (Subsequently confirmed by Nick Hodgetts as this - the first Welsh record since 1968, and a long way south of any previous record). I can honestly say that I thought Pembrokeshire's vegetation had lost the capacity to surprise me - it's nice that there are still a few secrets to reveal!

Isopterygiopsis pulchella

Lophozia longidens

 

Brownslade Burrows

I've been surveying dune bryophytes on Brownslade Burrows for Landmarc over the Christmas period. This is Pembrokeshire's most extensive dune system, and there is plenty of open, wet habitat in the former sand-pits here. The highlight was four small patches of Bryum dyffrynense, Nationally Rare and new to the county. 

Bryum dyffrynense and location

Other Bryums have proved more of a challenge, as they are lacking ripe fruits at this time of year. Some Bryum pallens could be confirmed through the presence of axillary gemmae. Bryum gemmiferum is here in one of its few county sites.  Bryum torquescens is occasional, sometimes in more mobile sand amongst marram. Slightly off the dunes on a limestone and clay track near Linney is some apparent Ptychostomum touwii, a recently recognised species which may be new to Wales.

axillary gemmae of Bryum pallens

Ptychostomum touwii

One surprise has been just how abundant Didymodon acutus is here. There's a huge population, surely the largest in the UK, and apparently all the Nationally Rare D. acutus sensu stricto, in comparison to the limestone tracks on the adjoining range where it's mostly D. icmadophilus.

Didymodon acutus

Also locally frequent are Preissia quadrata at its only site in the county, and Leiocolea badensis, not previously recorded here. Ditrichum flexicaule was new to the county from one slack. Distichium inclinatum is in two places, including on a slightly tufaceous soft-cliff above the beach. Although not fruiting it can be identified by the rectangular cells arranged in rows near the leaf shoulder.

Soft cliff with Didymodon tophaceous, Eucladium and a Distichium

Trichostomum crispulum is the most abundant moss in the slacks, and a few shoots were sporting a fungus - Bryostroma trichostomi. 

Bryostroma trichostomi

Oh, and there's some petalwort. Lots of it. Doing fine.

Petalwort

 

 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