DHBlog010 · A report by Jim White
Wild Woodbury is a new project being led by Dorset Wildlife Trust. Details are available on their website. The fields and woods have all been given names, mostly restored from prior usage. For example, George’s Copse is not a wood belonging to George, but the name of a wood. A quick reminder: bryologists generally use scientific names because most of the English names are recent confections that do little to help identification.
Thursday 20th October, Wild Woodbury
It was good to start the 2022/23 season at Wild Woodbury on Thursday. Here’s a short report of the session. (The bracketed names are the latest versions…. Ignore as you wish of course!).
A very fair forecast earlier in the week for October 20th proved to be somewhat misleading; the reality on the day was decidedly more changeable. To misquote the old popular song – ‘Raindrops on glasses and misting on lenses …. these are a few of my favourite things’ NOT! Nonetheless, despite the prospect of a wet couple of hours to start and, arguably more daunting still, the thought of tackling ‘arable bryophytes’, seven moss hunters gathered at Wild Woodbury. After a wet morning the day improved markedly with clear skies and warm sunshine to ease along our arable explorations.
Our first target area was George’s Copse which proved a useful area to learn, or familiarise ourselves with, a respectable list of typical woodland bryos. The recent (indeed current!) rain put the mosses in very good condition but less convenient was the need to constantly dry and de-mist specs and lenses. There are no great surprises in the bryo-flora of the wood but we secured a modest list including many old friends. An abundance of fallen and inclined trunks, much of it sallow, along with mature oak, hazel, ash and the odd poplar, and gullies and seepages on neutral clay soils, gives good habitat variety. Clothing much of the lying wood is a thick cover of mosses including Brachythecium rutabulum, Hypnum cupressiforme, Kindbergia praelonga and Isothecium myosuroides. Living trunks and branches support these spp too, along with Hypnum resupinatum, Cryphaea heteromalla, Ulota crispa, Ulota (Plenogemma) phyllantha, Orthotrichum affine (Lewinskya affinis), Zygodon conoideus, Frullania dilatata, and Cololejeunea(Myriocoleopsis) minutissima. A large fallen but living trunk of poplar also has Bryum capillare and Thamnobryum alopercurum. Also sometimes growing among the mosses on vertical trunks is the very neat southern/western lichen Normandina pulchella. Fallen but partly rotten trunks include in their cover Plagiomnium affine and P. undulatum, the latter growing more luxuriantly in the shaded, damp sides of gullies.
One of the most frequent mosses of the woodland floor is Atrichum undulatum and there are frequent spots with Fissidens taxifolius and some F. bryoides. Where there are drier conditions, on more elevated banks, Mnium hornum and Dicranella heteromalla occur, while the steep, humid sides of the major drain hold colonies of the thalloid liverworts Conocephalum conicum and Pellia endiviifolia both indicative of base-rich influences. Not noticed on the many lying trunks but present in a permanently damp seepage zone is the leafy liverwort Lophocolea heterophylla.
Mosses still form a significant element of the ground cover in the ex-arable fields where grasses and herbs have not yet fully established. This flora includes, in Claycuts, more Brachythecium and Kindbergia, along with Oxyrhynchium hians, Tortula truncata (abundantly fruiting), Dicranella staphylina and Barbula convoluta (Streblotrichum convolutum). Joining this mixture, albeit in different proportions, in Bulbarrow – the most calcareous field - are Barbula unguiculata and the diminutive but abundantly fruiting Microbryum rectum.
The afternoon sun had encouraged a fine Clouded Yellow on the wing (in Hove), while within George’s Copse it was good to find two Oak Bush-crickets.
After surveying Wild Woodbury, the group will be moving on to Creech Heath. If you would like to join Jim and the group then please use the form on this website to provide your details and they will be forwarded to him.