Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, 22/10/16

A recording outing to Blackford Hill / Hermitage of Braid had the usual handful of new species to the mass of species you come across regularly. This Grimmia lisae had to be taken home to be confirmed while the Syntrichia intermedia was also nice. Even nicer was Syntrichia papillosa which I was too full of lunch to remember to photograph apparently.

Grimmia lisae - confirmed by leaf section

Syntrichia intermedia

Learning to love the Sphagnales, IV - S.papillosum versus S.palustre

S.papillosum versus S.palustre from IFLI field day at West Moss, Fallin.

These are both big, blousy species in the section Sphagnum. The papillosum on the left here shows the stubby sausage branches, though I think it may not always be so simple

Racomitrium aciculare glamourshot

Another one from Mull, though pretty common, at least in Scotland and the west

Learning to love the Sphagnales III - S.subnitens

Still trying to learn to love the Sphagnum. This one comes from the Isle of Mull and it has some signature features that ought to make it readily identifiable in the field ... maybe.

First up it's a bit dingy lookg - at least this one is. It isn't always, apparently. But the capitulum also has a tendency to a green centre with more red pigments around the outside. Like so:

Next it has a reddish stem, almost triangular upright stem leaves (but slightly more "square" proximally), and typically two branching stems and one trailing. Like so:

Seems like that's enough to be going on with. I kind of fell, sort of, that I would know it again if I were to come face to face with it. Though I probably will have forgotten its name by then!

Scorpidium scorpioides

An oldie but a goodie, a fat, julaceous moss from a flush on the Isle of Mull - and the best moss name ever

Turkish Delight - Frullania dilitata in Turkey

In a Quercus wood at Igneada on the Black Sea

Paxton House, Berwickshire - Hornwort Phaeoceros laevis

Sadly no field pictures were steady enough to show it in situ, but here are images of the male parts, the female parts with sadly collapsed horn and the rhizinous underparts

Orthotrichum Lyellii, Cullaloe, December 2015

A surprise late addition to the reserve list (and the 94th bryophyte), this bristle-moss was noticed just above head height while looking for epiphytic lichens on Willows. always a pleasure to see, especially close up.

This one is only the third county record, with one from 1967 and another more modern one from Tentsmuir.