Giggleswick Churchyard Mosses Workshop - Report of a super morning

(See other post on Mosses and Liverworts)

22 people attended the workshop - Here we are looking at "Springy Turf-Moss"

Here is a mosses eye view of a Bryologist -
(whoops  - left my camera on the ground)

Here is are the mosses I was looking at they were growing on the wall:-

A species of Plait-moss (Hypnum)

Didymodon insulanus - cylindric Beard-moss
The leaves are about 3 mm long and curve,
so that instead of looking like a star the moss looks
a little like a catherine wheel from above.

This was a new record for the site compared to two years ago
 - not because it was rare,
but because I have only just started making an effort
to distinguish these more tiny mosses.

We started off the workshop by looking at moss structure - aided by the paper models I had made - mosses magnified 100 times! I, standing on the left, am holding Wall Screw-moss (Tortula muralis and Wendy in the centre is holding Great Hairy Screw-moss (Syntrichia muralis)

Polytrichastrum formosum -both above and below. (from 2011 day)  It used to be called Polytrichum formosum
Poly means many, trich  means hairs.   - and this applies to the hairs on the cap of the capsule (again, not seen). The Greek suffix aster or astrum means an incomplete similarity - So Plytrichastrum is simalar to Polytrichum but not quite.  e.g.  a poetaster is an inferior poet.
Maybe I am a bryologistaster.
 Formosus is the latin for "finely formed, handsome, beautiful."  The English name is "Bank Haircap".

A CCG member took some mosses home and examined them under his stereo microscope. Here is some Bank Haircap (Polytrichastrum formosum) you can see the edge of the blade is toothed. with imagination you can see the lamellae (ridges) running along the centre of the blades.

The next moss workshop will be at Ingleton on 23 February.

This will be at 10am.
There will be a charge of £5-00 per person  (Coffee, biscuits, B&W handouts included)


I have found somewhere to store the paper models..until the Ingleton workshop:
at St John's Church Hall:-

Can you recognise the Capillary thread-moss (Bryum capillare) growing out of my head.?

And the Bicuspid Crestwort (Lophocolea bidentata) a liverwort with two-toothed leaves - near my left shoulder?

I hope you can come to Ingleton on 23 February.

(See other post on Mosses and Liverworts)