Friday 31 October 2014

Carlingnose quest

For the past couple of days been recording Carlingnose Point nature reserve for brief spells (lunchtime). Could be fun to work over the area one 10m square at a time. Not that big a reserve so I could build up a decent picture of what's there by nibbling away at it. Experimenting with recording at a finer granularity than normal. As you would expect, some species will feature in every 10m square. Hypnum cupressiforme is winning the race so far, along with Kindbergia praelonga. Wherever there are rocks there is also Grimmia, but only pulvinata (so far?). My polygon needs some adjustment to resemble the reserve boundaries more closely too.

I might try to do this with Cullalor LNR, but that's a much bigger challenge because of its size. Would be an interesting project though.

Grimmia and friend (Orthotrichum?)

G.pulvinata map so far

Hypnum cupressiforme

Kindbergia (Eurhynchium) praelonga(um)

Fissidens taxifolius

Not unusual but always a delight under the lens. From Carlingnose Point LNR, Fife. Excurrent nerve, no border, fairly large Fissidens

One side

A bunch of ... eh ... 7 or 8s

Individual leaf - serrate, unbordered margin

Leaf tip

Leaf overlap at stem

And close up

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Bryo bit - video features

Well, here's a bryo bit I never expected. A random internet find. I feel like I met Jeff recently after the BBS meet at the Edinburgh Botanics. Fascinating bit about a relationship between fungi and liverworts that predates the break-up of Gondwana!

Jeff Ducket interview

And another nice one I haven't watched yet ...

Half hour documentary on bryophytes

Reproduction

Spore producing plants 

Monday 27 October 2014

Tetraphis pellucida, D&G, NS8108

A new one for me from D&G, and some nice memorable features. Those little gemma cups are the thing that I always remember from the field guide though




Wednesday 22 October 2014

Zygodon viridissimus

D&G, NS8108, 19/10/2014

in the round

'jizz'

one branch/stem

whole leaves

leaf with propagules

leaf base

leaf tip

seta

propagule

Monday 20 October 2014

Recording meet Dumfries and Galloway 19th October, 2014

A compact group of 5 (6 - forgot to count myself!) climbed, clambered and slid along the muddy slopes of the Glendyne area (NS8108). I managed to see some new bryophytes and the weather, despite early threats, stayed nice and mild - mostly.

Ground covered
Here's a map of the ground covered in NS8108 area and a bit more besides, with the straight road the walk back to the car. 28th October is when I remembered to stop the track recording! Luckily I was at least able to cut out all the extra recording from the drive home etc.
 


The place/people

Overview

Valerie scrutinises a stubble field
 
Group scanning for epiphytes

Waterfalls

Old walls beside the river (Lophozia ventricosa)

Bridge? what bridge?

Autumn leaves

The plants

A nice Homalothecium

Encalypta streptocarpa
 
Tetraphis pellucida

Hypnum andoi

Luxuriant Dicranum in the afternoon sun
 
Trichocolea tomentella

A splendid Rhodobryum

The peripherals - 'off-topic'

Sometimes there are other things besides bryophytes

Notch-winged Tortrix moth

Amanita muscaria - 'THE' toadstool

Witches butter fungus

Oddly capped fungus - no ID (yet!)

Curious cross between a buffalo and a sheep