Meeting report
The aim of this meeting was to record bryophytes in NT2073, thereby covering almost all of Corstorphine Hill Local Nature Reserve following the outing led by David Chamberlain to NT2074 in April. The “group”, consisting of Vladimir Krivtsov and me, met at the Cairnsmuir/ Kaimes Road entrance. Immediately above this is one of the Hill’s many old quarries. Syntrichia papillosa was abundant on Elder trees, and half-buried stones were covered fruiting Rhychostegium confertum. On the quarry face was an extensive patch of Homalia trichomanoides, with Neckera complanata on an adjacent rock outcrop. The ground above the quarry, under the cover of Beech, was dominated by Hypnum jutlandicum and Polytrichum formosum.
By our path towards the Walled Garden we found Frullania dilatata, Ulota sp., and Cryphaea heteromalla on a multi-trunked Ash. Inside the Walled Garden were Pellia endiviifolia and Pohlia wahlenbergii, with Fissidens taxifolius and Thamnobryum alopecurum outside the Garden in the deep shade of the north wall.
The epiphytes on the trees lining the path towards the Radio Mast and Tower included Dicranum tauricum on Birch and Radula complanata competing with Metzgeria violacea on Elder. However, perhaps the most interesting habitat was the unsurfaced Radio Mast car park where, in the absence of an expert, we struggled to identify the acropcarps and leafy liverworts. Apart from the tawny carpets of some Didymodon sp. we found very small Dicranales and Fossombronia sp. Subsequent microscopic examination also found Riccia sp. but I was unable to find any better developed plants on a return visit the next day.
Our final stop was on the east edge of NT2073 to look at liverworts on the slope beside the path. Here we found Calypogeia arguta, Diplophyllum albicans, and Pellia epiphylla. The final species total, including three from the next day’s return visit and those which we were unable to take to actual species, was 66.
David Adamson November 2024
Download list of species seen