Tetrad SD86-4

31 March. Thursday: Sun was forecast.  (See also The first trip to this tetrad)

I parked at the Layby, after Robert's barn and field but before the bend before Stangill Barn.
I joined  the path which goes parallel to the wall to the north end of the field where there is a gate which goes into Turf Hill Field. This wall had a few gritstone capstones. I photographed Lecanora polytropa and Pertusaria corallina  and Acarospora fuscata.

I paused at the gate. We used to pause here with the 6th-formers on Soils Days at Malham Tarn Field Centre, and talk about lichen and moss colonisation as a first step in soil formation.

So here I am 30 years later looking at mosses and lichens.

At SD880(05)  687(06) almost out of the monad,  was some Molina and Juncus squarrosus - podsol vegetation:
Phew. it just managed to be in the square! (NVC U6).

Plagiothecium undulatum. Hypnum jutlandicum,   then further on some tussocks of Sphagnum capillifolium, Polytichum strictum, Polytrichum commune, Dicranum scoparium.. and well that was it ..
At SD 880(87) 688(95) 20m uphill and west of the gate was a slope with shallow soil, lots of Carex and Sesleria and Breutelia chrysocoma. But I could not find anything else new.

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As I walked down towards Stangill I met the top of the "dry valley" which had one small north facing cliff .. Maybe I'll write more on this cliff another time.. But I now have Gymnostemum sp on my list.