In this instance, the metal pollution comes from water running off a sheet of corrugated metal. It's nailed to the wall of an old building which the mosses are growing at the base of. Interesting how the two species are arranged here, mirroring the corrugation of the metal sheet above.
Two mosses which grow in habitats polluted with heavy metals, like lead and zinc. The bright yellow-green one which looks like felt is Weissia controversa var. densiflora. The other is Bryum pallescens. Here they are growing in an abandoned gold mine in North Wales. @bbsbryology.bsky.social (1/2)
Shining Hookeria (Hookeria lucens) typically grows around streams and on slopes and banks in temperate woodlands. Hookeriaceae is, however, mostly a tropical family. Related species grow, e.g., as epiphylls on the leaves of other plants in tropical rainforests.
The moss Dicranum scottianum is endemic to high rainfall regions of Europe & Macaronesia. In this Welsh temperate rainforest it is growing as an epiphyte on Oak. This example also has its own epiphytes - little colonies of cyanobacteria or algae. Plants on plants on plants @bbsbryology.bsky.social
One of my favourites too!
Schistochilopsis incisa (Scapaniaceae) growing on a rotting log in N Wales. This liverwort has been reported from every continent except Australasia and Antarctica, but it is polyphyletic, so probably includes multiple undescribed species with smaller ranges. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
It has declined at Coed Crafnant in North Wales for that reason, mostly because of Rhytidiadelphus loreus.
More incredible temperate rainforest, from Seatoller Wood in Borrowdale. Nice to see native tree cover reaching the 300m mark. Of two Lepidozia cupressina colonies with good OSGRs available on NBN, though, I could sadly only refind one. I think the other is genuinely gone. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Beautiful winter evening light in an area of young birch and oak woodland on Gray Hill Common in Wentwood, the largest area of (planted) ancient woodland in Wales.
An amazing example of upland oakwood/temperate rainforest habitat above ~200m in North Wales. A really surreal place to spend a few hours on a wet and misty day.
Cool to find some big healthy cushions of Lepidozia cupressina at a site in Gwynedd, where it doesn't seem to have been recorded before. Good news for one of our less common temperate rainforest liverworts in Wales, as it has declined dramatically at some nearby sites @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Interesting, why so few deer in Wales historically? Much discussion about proper grazing levels for bryophytes/lichens in Welsh Atlantic woods...I have visited some where overshading by bracken/bramble is a serious issue, others where the effects of past overgrazing are stark
I've only ever seen it as a saxicole too. Some amazing photos on iNaturalist of it covering tree trunks and branches in places like Madeira and the Azores
Yes, for a lot of the woodland sites I have visited here in N Wales, NRW's site management statements note that deer are spreading in the region as their numbers increase and may become an issue for woodland regen
A tree clothed in the Filmy-fern Hymenophyllum tunbrigense at Ceunant Llennyrch NNR. Transported for a moment to the Macaronesian laurissilva. We can only imagine what virgin temperate rainforest looked like in the Welsh uplands now - perhaps this was a more common sight @bsbibotany.bsky.social
The leaves of the moss Dicranodontium denudatum break off easily and act as vegetative propagules. They are very "sticky" too, at least when wet. Was perhaps an even more efficient method of dispersal when more large animals like deer, boar, and moose roamed our woodlands. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Trees covered in the hyperoceanic liverworts Plagiochila spinulosa (left) and Scapania gracilis (right) in the temperate rainforest at Coed Hafod-y-Llyn, Gwynedd. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Here is what the leaves look like under the microscope. The nerve is less stout than in H. tenax and longer than in H. humile. It is often "kinked" in the upper half.
Willow Feather-moss (Hygroamblystegium varium) on stones in willow carr around the edges of a dried-up reservoir. It probably spends much of the year at least partially submerged, as the surrounding soil was sprouting 100s of plants of Physcomitrium pyriforme and P. patens. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Sausage-shaped antheridia (reproductive structures) from male plants of the moss Zygodon conoideus. They are surrounded by paraphyses (unicellular strands) and produced in a rosehip-shaped perigonium. Many bryophytes produce reproductive structures at this time of year. @bbsbryology.bsky.social
Characteristic down-turned margins with strongly curved hairs separate it from similar Metzgeria conjugata - plus the "fan-like" growth habit visible in some of the colonies photographed above.
It was nice to find a mega colony of the uncommon hyperoceanic liverwort Metzgeria leptoneura in North Wales recently. Very surprised that it doesn't seem to have been noticed at this otherwise well-recorded site before.
