Meeting report

We were just a small group of 6 for this first  meeting of the season – enough to find a good variety of things but not so many that we lost track of people. We had one new member, Tim Oliver, who had done a little bryology some time ago and proved to have a very good memory for them! Our route was more or less what we had planned and we refound many of the species previously recorded (Campylophyllopsis calcarea, Anomodon longifolius, Marchesinia mackaii, Porella arboris-vitae, Platygyrium repens…). It was good to check up on things and see that they were still there, and we added at least a couple of species to the site list:

• Dialytrichia mucronata on trees along the river – recorded along the Wye before, but not at this location
• Dicranella schreberiana – quite possibly overlooked at previous meetings so well done to Pete for spotting it

Sharon was quick to spot some fruiting Oxyrrhynchium schleicheri which (according to Smith) rarely has capsules, so an excellent record which of course will be fed into the Phenology project. Sharp-eyed George spotted Cololejeunea rossettiana growing amongst the Anomodon longifolius we had all been admiring, and it was also found to be fruiting (very poor photo below). Claire spotted a good candidate for Hennediella along the river bank which we all assumed would be H. stanfordensis, the most common species found in Glos, but actually turned out to be H. macrophylla. It was subsequently found that H. macrophylla had been recorded new to Glos from just a few meters away by Tom Ottley in 2012. It was missing from the list downloaded prior to the meeting because the NBN had incorrectly assigned it to VC36 – Herefordshire.

We searched in vain for Lophocolea fragrans at its previously recorded location on boulder in Mailscot Wood, but hopefully just missed it. However we did collect a couple of specimens of Leucobryum which need confirming using Tom Ottley’s new key, but will be either L. juniperoideum (probably) or L. albidum (turned out to be L. albidum), either of which would be a new record for VC34 thanks to the split of this genus in 2023.

It was a very pleasant day, with reasonable weather and good company. You can download the list of species recorded below and see some not very good images of what we saw 🙂

Meeting details

Our first meeting will be at Symonds Yat which the group visited previously with Richard Lansdown in 2017. This is a bryological hotspot for Gloucestershire, and we saw Anomodon longifolius, Orthothecium intricatum, Blindiadelphus campylopodus, Tortula marginata, Lophocolea fragrans and  Scleropodium tourettii amongst others.

Meet in the Forestry Commission car park SO563157 for a 10.30 start. The car parking charge has increased considerably to £7, so you may wish to consider car sharing.

Our provisional plan is to walk down to the River Wye and along to the Slaughter, then up Whippington Brook and back along the top back to the car park, but this may of course change on the day and at the whim of the leaders 🙂

Please bring packed a packed lunch, wet weather gear and stout footwear.

Please ensure that you download and read the Risk Assessment below before the meeting