Meeting report
At the suggestion of Pentland Hills Ranger Zuzana our first meeting of 2024/25 season was at Red Moss Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve, a raised bog situated between farmland and Threipmuir Reservoir at the foot of the Pentlands. Although the reserve spans two monads we only explored the more southern part, NT1663, where we were able to access the raised bog from a boardwalk.
The reserve manager, Julian Warman, had granted us full access and permission to collect specimens; in return we would provide a list of species. We took the opportunity to focus on Sphagna; in 2019 Liz Kungu had led a Sphagnum workshop for Edinburgh Natural History Society after we had collected eight species from Red Moss, so we knew it was fairly rich in these mosses. Today, using the field keys in the FSC publication “Sphagnum Mosses”, we were quickly able to identify S fimbriatum but had more difficulty with S fallax. Although the keys seem to make identification a straightforward process, in practice the orientation of stem leaves is rarely obvious and it can be difficult to tell whether the apex of a stem leaf is fringed, notched or entire. Despite this, we confidently identified S capillifolium, S cuspidatum, S medium, S palustre, S rubellum, and S tenellum in the field, and I later found that I had collected S subnitens.
Simon found Odontoschisma sphagni and later identified some tiny gemmiferous liverworts as O denudatum. All the bryophytes found today were characteristic raised bog species except for a handful of common mosses on a sandstone plinth, some Hypnum sp. and Isothecium myosuroides on Birch, and Brachytheciastrum velutinum and Bryum sp. growing on the boardwalk itself. Pohlia nutans was found underneath the boardwalk. There was plenty of non-bryological interest including 3 Snipe, a yellow and black Broom Moth caterpillar, and a large larva of the Birch Sawfly Cimbex femoratus. Most photographs were probably taken of a nymph of the Bronze Shieldbug Troilus luridus, its rostrum having impaled a beetle Lochmaea capreae.
Thanks to Julian Warman, and to the SWT, for granting us access and permission to collect at Red Moss Reserve.
David Adamson, October 2024
