DHBlog011 · A report by Jim White
As with the previous report, the scientific names are those found in the Bryophyte Field Guide with the more recent names shown in brackets.
Thursday 27th October, Wild Woodbury
The forecast for this Thursday proved very reliable; cloud clearing to warm sunshine by late morning. It was breezy but extremely mild and with no rain, so the seven bryologists who gathered again at Wild Woodbury could concentrate on finding and trying to ID specimens. Our target patches this week were the small wooded block of Masterman’s Copse and Wilcox’s field – or rather a tiny portion of this large unit. Looking for tiny mosses on hands and knees, in this former grass ley, led to very little ground covered, so our finds relate very much to a small part of the lower NE side of the field, near the junction with the wood.
Masterman’s Copse is smaller than last week’s George’s and less varied topographically. It has many similarities however, with mature oaks and much old sallow, and plenty of fallen or horizontal trunks, so the epiphyte bryo-flora is similar. Hypnum cupressiforme, Isothecium myosuroides and Brachythecium rutabulum all clothe the lying wood, with frequent Hypnum andoi, H. resupinatum, Ulota crispa, Zygodon conoideus, Orthotrichum affine(Lewinskya affinis), Cryphaea heteromalla, Frullania dilatata, and Cololejeunea(Myriocoleopsis) minutissima on standing stems, this latter tiny liverwort was especially abundant on a sycamore trunk. Orthotrichum (Pulvigera) lyellii occurs on some trees, while present occasionally, with frequent Metzgeria furcata on most trees, are M. violacea and M. consanguinea. One damp and shaded lying trunk has a good colony of the much less frequently seen Frullania tamarisci. The floor in this wood has a high cover of ferns and bramble in particular, so the ground cover of bryos is limited, with far less showing of Atrichum undulatum this week. Fissidens taxifolius, Dicranella heteromalla and Lophocolea bidentata are present in suitable habitat, but a marked difference here, from George’s Copse, is a local abundance of the robust moss Eurynchium striatum. Masterman’s includes an open glade with much grass and scrub - perhaps the location of former game pens – and obvious spp here include Kindbergia praelonga, Polytrichum formosum and Plagiomnium undulatum, while the bordering track has Calliergonella cuspidata, Pseudoscleropodium purum and Didymodon fallax.
Despite a superficial appearance of dense grass cover across Wilcox’s, the rye-grass ley here is still very open, and there is a more consistent ground cover of bryophytes in this open sward than in most of the former arable fields, where regeneration of various grasses and herbs is more advanced. Most of the bryophytes of this ‘arable’ community are decidedly small, requiring close examination. Indeed the scene of our group exploring was redolent of the later stages of a mediaeval pilgrimage, with some progressing painstakingly on their knees and others prostrate, faces pressed into the turf (Editor’s Note: you can decide for yourself from the image at the top of the report). With only a very small proportion of the field examined our list is doubtless far from complete, but the spp noted included Tortula truncata, T. modica (caucasica), Ceratodon purpureus, Didymodon insulanus, Bryum rubens, B. dichotomum, Fissidens exilis and the minute Ephemerum minutissimum (serratum). The larger pleurocarpous moss Oxyrrhynchium hians is also present, although as yet not as prevalent as in many of the ex-arable sites, including Peewit, where we concluded our session with just a partial exploration. Along with several more of the typical arable community, Peewit also yielded a few colonies of the very neat thalloid liverwort Riccia sorocarpa. At the top edge of this field is a stand of ancient sallows, marking a spring. In complete contrast to the majority of the field, this small pocket of wet woodland has several Sphagnums – Sphagnum palustre, S. denticulatum (auriculatum), S. fimbriatum and S. squarrosum. The bank forming the edge of the site, against the plantation, provides a shaded but slightly drier habitat, with additional spp including Mnium hornum, Calypogeia muelleriana and the distinctive moss Plagiothecium undulatum.
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.