Species add - Climacium dendroides, Tree-moss, to Bryophytes

Found this fantastic bryophyte this morning - I would have called it Palm Tree Moss, but they didn't bother with the "palm" part. Don't know why, but it still works.

 Climacium dendroides, Tree moss

BBS FG page

29/30/2013

Diary 25th Nov - 1st Dec

25th Nov

Water frozen over, so not many waterbirds about. Spillway running gently with no ice on edges. Some ice in filter beds, where the vegetation is clear enough to show extensive silting at the pond dipping platform. Bryophyte investigation continues, with Variable Crisp-Moss added (pics) from the elders and Little Shaggy Moss removed from the list for the time being for further investigation (it was wrong).

27th Nov
Mild weather - 12 degrees. Moss hunt at lunchtime to cover mossy barrens, but there was chainsaw work underway so I side-stepped it. Did manage to snag photos of Pointed Spear-moss though. Also this morning took bryophyte list from mgt plan and put on here. Counts at lunchtime, with another two mosses and a mushroom to be checked tonight, are:

	Mine	Total	Photo	New
Vertebrate - Birds	119	135	57	4
Vertebrate - Other	10	16	2	3
Invertebrate - Lepidoptera	35	76	30	40
Invertebrate - Other	20	223	19	5
Plants - Vascular	117	248	112	15
Plants - Bryophytes	10	19	10	5
Fungi	19	19	19	19
Lichens	4	4	4	4
	334	740	253	95

29th Nov
Dropped into the reserve this morning to pick up some moss and scored another 2 species which I haven't identified yet, on top of the one unidentified species I went for. All of them in the mossy barrens, where a few birches have been chopped down and laid in an extravagantly tall pile. A couple of smaller trees have also been chopped back in the barren areas - nice to keep those open as they have a unique contribution to the reserve in terms of moss, lichen and fungi.

Species add - Tubaria furfuracea, Scurfy Twiglet, to Fungi

From "Roger's Mushrooms" website (i.e. Philiips)

Cap 
1–4cm across, convex then flattened or centrally depressed, cinnamon to tan and striate from margin inwards when moist drying pale buff and slightly scurfy.
Stem
20–50 x 2–4mm, more or less concolorous with the cap, base covered in white down. Flesh concolorous.
Taste and smell not distinctive.
Gills 
Broad, distant, adnate to slightly decurrent, cinnamon.
Cheilocystidia thin-walled, hyaline, cylindric to clavate. Spore print pale ochre.
Spores
Elliptic with rounded apex, 7–9´4.5–5m.
Habitat
On twigs and woody debris. Season all year, usually autumn to early winter.
Common. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe.

Flickr set

Tubaria furfuracea, Scurfy Twiglet

Pic add - Common Tamarisk-moss, Thuidium tamariscinum, added to Bryophytes

On the edge of the willow carr in Cpt-7a

Thuidium tamariscinum, Common Tamarisk-moss

BBS FG page

27/11/2013

Pic add - Pointed Spear-moss

Already on the list for the reserve and widespread on the open areas of Cpt-7a. I have a sample for close-ups and microscope shots later

BBS FG page

Calliergonella cuspidata, Pointed Spear-moss

27/11/2013

Pic add - Springy Turf-moss, Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, to Bryophytes

Note the start shaped end of the stalk and the way the leaves bend back sharply

Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, Springy Turf-moss

BBS FG

Moss mystery - Bryum sp.?

Picked up a sample of a moss from between the car park and pond dipping platform a couple of days ago. After keying it out and browsing possible candidates for a keying "wrong turn" it looks like I will have to settle for genus level without setae. I have learned a typical key path for acrocarps with hairy leaf tips though (jump to key step 81! 78 is acrocarps). This is the one here - the more "fluffy" one on the left of pic #1.

Sulphur Tuft

These that I found last week appear to be sulphur tuft, based on clumping, sulphurous coloration - especially gills which somehow I have apparently managed to not photograph - and purple spore print. This means the previous ones I thought might be Sulphur Tuft probably aren't, and are something else. They had independent growth habit and dark tan spore print.

Species add - Megabunus diadema to Harvestmen

Picked up some moss from Cpt6 basically to keep liverworts hydrated until I got them home. on unpacking I found a surprise visitor - an unrecorded, and very cool, harvestman. If I were to give it an English name "Armoured Harvestman" would be my suggestion! In latin though, "Crowned" seems a fair enough descriptor. Doesn't really tell you about all those leg spines though.

SRS species page
wiki

Megabunus diadema

Turret head

Diadem'd

Body patterning

 

New Pic add - Metzgeria furcata, Forked Veilwort, to Bryophytes

Found by chance from a photo of another liverwort on an oak, this turned out to be around quite a bot of the north side of the trunk below about 1m, including at its apparent most healthy underneath the Lophocolea bidenta. Identification is tentative yet, but looks ok. Mosses and Liverworts field guide is on its way!

BBS field guide page

Metzgeria furcata, Forked Veilwort

19/11/2013

Diary - 18th-24th Nov

18th Nov
Glorious autumn colours.Found new liverwort, as yet unidentified, on the first big oak into the woods.
Added Grey Cushion Moss to Bryophyte pictures
Added Iodine Bonnet to Fungi

19th Nov
Sub-zero overnight and a clear cold day today. Collected two species of liverwort from oak at lunchtime for closer inspection. Goldeneye female on the pond is new for the year list, taking it to 89.
Added Forked Veilwort, to Bryophytes pictures

20th Nov
Windy night means the road is covered with leaves, especially ash leaves. A harvestman I picked up yesterday by accident turned out to be Megabunus diadema - very cool. This morning the Goldeneye was still there, so I got a better (but not by much) shot of it.

Species add - Mycena filopes, Iodine Bonnet, to Fungi

Growing from a dead twig slightly buried in the woodland

Mycena filopes, Iodine Bonnet

16/11/2013

Pic add - Grimmia pulvinata, Grey Cushion Moss, to Bryophytes

On top of wall between Orchid Meadow and path in open sunlight, which I am hypothesising is the reason for its short and deeply curved setae/capsules - it's pretty exposed.

Grimmia Pulvinata, Grey Cushion Moss

18/11/2013

Bryophyte lunchtime

Went to seek out the long-nerved moss from wall photo, try for a better picture of the Liverwort previously found and look for Bracken Club fungus.

Mission one failed, as I couldn't re-locate it in the time allotted - I'm assuming it's still there though. Mission 2 had a so-so result since it's quite dark where the liverwort lives (pic #1 below), and mission 3 proved fruitless, maybe because the timing is wrong. Bracken is dead and dry but maybe not ready to be fungified yet.

However ... mission 1 turned up Grey Cushion Moss, not yet photographed/recorded (by me), and mission 2 seems to have unearthed my second liverwort 2 (pic #2 below). That will be re-visited tomorrow.

Pic add - Swan's-neck Thyme-moss, Mnium hornum to Bryophytes

Plentiful in compartment 6 on the floor and the base of a large oak, Under the microscope the leaves are c.3mm long, have serrate edges, and a quite substantial nerve which doesn't quite extend to the leaf tip.

BBS page

Mnium hornum, Swan's-neck Thyme-moss

Ravens

Been a lot of Ravens around this year. Couple of them circling around the reserve at lunchtime today. Didn't have the right lens on for them though - only 50mm.

Pic add - Rough-stalked Feather-moss

Plentiful on fallen oak in Cpt-6, forming a carpet over at least horizontal areas. Note the knobbly seta and the serrate leaves

BBS info sheet

Brachythecium rutabulum, Rough-stalked Feather-moss

with guest!

My first liverwort! Lophocolea bidentata - Biphid Crestwort

After collecting a tiny white fungus from a fallen oak I started to pick apart the tiny bundle at home. There were two mosses (one more than I thought), but more exciting I noticed in amongst them my first ever liverwort. I was so excited that apparently I forgot to write down the species where I could access it from work. However, thanks to the nice BBS bryophyte key I was able to re-ID it this morning.

BBS field guide page

Lophocolea bidentata, Biphid Crestwort

Species add, Tricholoma cingulatum, Girdled Knight, to Fungi

Associated with pines according to Collins guide, which looks good. Could have done better with other characteristics (e.g. stipe ring), but I'll keep an eye out for it next time around

Tricholoma cingulatum, Girdled Knight

08/10/2013

Pic add to Bryophytes - Pseudoscleropodium purum, Neat feather-moss

Toss up between Neat and Flagellate F-M but resolved by close up view of decurved leaf tips. Initial less chubby appearance probably because looking at dry specimen

Pseudoscleropodium purum, Neat  feather-moss

26/10/2013, cpt7a

iSpot moss key link

link

Wall lichens

Clean and light looking patches, which on close inspection are covered with tiny spheres (isidia?) like little snowballs, which give it it's clean and matte look.Seems to be in a war with neighbouring lichen, which itself is crusty and has black fruits (Lecanora sp.?)

This round lichen is crusty with a smooth surface, which may be same as #1 but without isidia?

Third is is a nice leafy one with jam tart fruits (apothecia) with an algal surround (lecanorine) and a marmalade-like orangey yellow interior