Monday 31 March 2014

Cullaloe Hills, Saturday, March 30th

Extended my coverage of the hills a bit, and apparently re-covered a small area too.New area in red at the bottom of the picture


On a foggy morning in the mysterious looking forest I managed to find some Sphagnum at last, and only after some confusion realised I seem to have three species. I haven't managed to identify even one of them yet! I did find the already-mentioned Rhizomnium psuedopunctatum, and confirm Dicranum tauricum, both of which were good. I have a feeling a small bit of Calliergonella cuspidata is also new for me in the area.

Some scenes from the morning:









Having forgotten to take a pen, or even a hand-lens (in my other jacket!), I also took some small vouchers as an aide-memoire for some of the commoner species I recorded. Shows a nice variety of bryophyte forms.


And the three Sphagna


(I have a feeling the one on the left is S.squarrosum and the centre S.palustre)

Cullaloe hills Rhizomnium

One of my favourite species from this weekend, and a new one for me - Rhizomnium psuedopunctatum. The biggest leaves are enormous at nearly 1cm long, and they are covered in matted rhizoids (like Aulacomnium palustre). I'm sure I have a photo, but here's a drawing I made of one example:


Friday 28 March 2014

Thursday 27 March 2014

Schistidium sunshine

Not sure which species yet. I just couldn't resist the teeth


Barbula sardoa

This has yet to be confirmed by an expert, but it looks good to me. Note how the leaf margins stay wavy even under a microscope slide. From D&G. Everything on this plant is papillose!






Monday 24 March 2014

Cullaloe Hills pics II

Miscellaneous field pics from 22/03

Forestry Commission

Backlit Mnium hornum

Rock face

Rhizomnium plantation

Orthodontium lineare


Lophocolea explosion






Cullaloe Hills project

Coverage extended, with two more species added to the list at least (because I don't know them from anywhere else!). I suspect more than this once I sort out the list, as I don't recall coming across Rhizomnium punctatum there either.


Total list - new species in bold:
1. Amblystegium serpens
2. Atrichum undulatum
3. Brachythecium rutabulum
4. Bryum capillare
5. Campylopus fragilis
6. Dichodontium pellucidum
7. Dicranella heteromalla
8. Dicranum scoparium
9. Didymodon insulanus
10. Eurhynchium hians
11. Eurhynchium praelongum
12. Fissidens bryoides
13. Hypnum andoi
14. Hypnum cupressiforme var. cupressiforme
15. Mnium hornum
16. Orthodontium lineare
17. Orthotrichum affine
18. Orthotrichum diaphanum
19. Plagiomnium undulatum
20. Plagiothecium undulatum
21. Polytrichum commune
22. Polytrichum formosum
23. Rhizomnium punctatum
24. Rhytidiadelphus loreus
25. Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus
26. Sanionia uncinata
27. Zygodon viridissimus s.l.
28. Diplophyllum albicans
29. Lepidozia reptans
30. Lophocolea bidentata
31. Lophocolea heterophylla
32. Pellia endiviifolia
33. Pellia epiphylla
34. Scapania undulata

Friday 21 March 2014

My favourite moss - Didymodon insulanus

Used to be Climacium dendroides, but now it's this. A nice tuft of Didymodon insulanus at Inverkeithing this morning. no further processing of D&G mosses due to a fun evening of bothering fungi


Thursday 20 March 2014

D&G Polytrichum piliferum

Lovely little species, and therefore deserving of being chopped up! Sadly I have no field photos. Nice little bobble on the apical cell of the lamellae, and an interesting structure inside the folded "wing" of the leaf too.





Wednesday 19 March 2014

Bryomeet, Dumfries and Galloway, 2014-03-16

Just under ten of us descended on D&G on Sunday, covering the areas below (the middle section was covered by car, the areas at the end actually worked


I'm not sure what the grand total for the day was, but I managed to connect with some new and interesting species. Off the top of my head Orthotrichum Lyellii was a nice one, as was Cryphaea heteromalla. There were some other goodies too, which will feature shortly as I process them

One thing that caught me out was this Ceratodon purpureus, which I had never seen this colour before. We thought it was red in the field, but on this view it looks more purple. Not that the colour was what caught me anyway - I thought it appeared a much bigger plant. When we later found a green one it was clearly the same thing



A variety of shots from the day

river banks largely scrubbed clean by high waters
Lophocolea capsules opened up
Bathing beauty on the path

Cryphaea dry
Cryphaea "fluffed"

This jealous hen didn't like being ignored for moss!
Jericho loch