Meeting report
Brilliant sunshine in November. We had a lovely day led by Brian Burnett at this limestone grassland site.
The group started with an inspection of the car park with a number of ‘grots’. Bryum dichotomum was found and its bulbils were duly inspected. Some temporary confusion was caused by some very un-asymmetric Cryphaea heteromalla growing luxuriantly on thin branches of blackthorn and the differences between Ulota, Orthotrichum and Zygodon were discussed. We spent some time in the woods walking up to the grassland recording a range of woodland epiphytes and base loving pleurocarps.
After lunch some large boulders at the top of the limestone quarry yielded luxuriant cushions of Schistidium crassipilum. Some of the cushions were very bright green and looked superficially like Grimmia until you looked closely for the capsules. The day finished by a small broken limestone crag. Climacium dendroides was found above the crag and various calcicoles including Mesoptychia turbinata and some brightly coloured cushions of Hypnum lacunosum were found amongst the rocks. An opaque pale green acrocarp, thought to be Encalypta streptocarpa in the field, turned out to be Tortula subulata with its excurrent point and bordered leaves (still to be checked!).
A very pleasant companionable day at a most attractive site.