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| What have we found here? |
The Northumberland and Cumbria Branch of the British Bryological Society advertised a "Likely to be short" day in a park in Carlisle - One of the sites they had not surveyed during the 2012 Spring BBS meeting.
" A park!" I thought - "Likely to have some of the 'tiny' plants on tarmac that I'm trying to get my head round for writing my churchyard leaflets.. (perhaps there will be someone who can show me what they are..) AND, AND, I can get there on the Settle Carlisle Railway Line.
So that Friday evening I emailed Diane Dobson the organiser, and phoned a friend who lives near Carlisle, and set the alarm to get up early next day.
On the train I read up
Didymodon mosses .. or tried to - but you just have to look at the scenery from the train.
It's a beautiful railway line. The sun had still not risen completely at first so colours were monochrome as I travelled, up with the source of the Ribble on the right, through the tunnel, then Dentdale (River Dee) and Garsdale (River Clough) on the left, then the place where the source of the River Eden is capturing the source of the river Ure. ( The Ure which goes all the way down to Ripon, York and the sea.) Top of the world at Aisgill. Then the sun came out and the fields, hills and sky were full of colour. I waved to High Cup Nick in the distance.
In Carlisle I resisted the cheap shoe shops and made my way past the side of the castle,
to the part of the park where the river Caldew joins the river Eden. With 30 minutes to spare I could look at the trees.
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On the first trunk was a type of
Syntrichia (That group are called Screw-mosses in English- because the leaves screw up when dry). - they open out when moist and you can see they have quite wide leaves .
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This Syntrichia had short hair points and
very concave leaves with the edges rolled in
and as you'll read below turned out to be Syntrichia papillosa. |
I had been well trained, to look for Syntrichias on the base of tree trunks..
When on the BBS trip to Mull in 2007, 7 years ago, one evening we went to Tobermory.
Mark Pool, then Membership Secretary,
had made a bee-line for the row of trees on the "promenade"
(there are very few trees in Mull anyway)
looking for a moss-
Syntrichia papillosa that grows on trees in urban situations.
And we found it -
follow this link to the BBS website and you can see the picture I took of him (fifth picture down) .
I'll repost it here anyway: -
.So I learned the habitat for
Syntrichia papillosa - and we celebrated with fish and chips.
Here at Carlisle, ten minutes later Diane Dobson turned up, early, ready to lead the group. We introduced ourselves. I showed her the moss.
"
Syntrichia papillosa" she said straight away. She said she had only seen it a couple of times before - but recognises it because the leaves are very concave and the edges roll in, and there are lots of gemmae on the midrib. (It has a short hair point) The English name is Marble Screw-moss
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Here's a picture I took the next day when it had dried up -
not v good but you can see the leaf in the centre
has little green balls (gemmae) along the midrib.
also I see it is not very "screwed" |
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| We showed it to the next participant to arrive - Phil. |
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On the side of the trunk that they are looking at
there was a bigger sheet of it. |
Wahee!. Thank you Mark for showing me how to find it 7 years ago. Thank you Diane.
(It has since left me wondering - did we miss some
Orthotrichum tenellum?)
On the next tree, Diane was able to show me
Syntrichia laevipila: Small Hairy Screw-moss. Leaves 2.5-3.5 mm long. this was growing in a yellow green tuft.
It is different to
Tortula muralis (wall screw moss) which is much smaller and grows on walls
I just happen to have a photo of
Tortula muralis taken at Horton in Ribblesdale Railway Station, lower down on the Line, from 3 years ago:
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| 8 March 2011 - Horton Station |
I dug into my memory. I remembered finding another
Syntrichia with Tom Blockeel on an idyllic YNU trip on a tree beside the River Wharfe near Kettlewell -
Syntrichia latifolia. Water Screw-moss. It grows on tree boles that get covered with silt when the river floods. It was such a warm day that I waded up the river, but wary of the aggressive American Red-clawed crayfish lurking in the shady pools..
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| See what a difference it makes, spraying the trunk with Syntrichia latifolia with water. |
And we had found it with Sharon Pilkington at Preston Montford on the Acrocarps BBS course in Feb 2013 on the wet tarmac of the Field Centre Drive
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| Very wet Syntrichia latifolia on wet day at Preston Montford |
Well in Carlisle we found it:
First on a concrete plinth/block that had been put there to support a stone sculpture (a sort of sphere) - the
Syntrichia latifolia was growing on the damp surface shaded by this stone sphere
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| And second near the base of a tree. |
We visited trees near the car park, the trees near the river - we could not get down to the river bank it was too flooded - and marched across the ryegrass playing field which had only two mosses, to the tarmac path nearer the castle - This had various Didymodons - (which are STILL in their packets.) We found one with crimson setae - "That must be Ceratodon " said Diane - relieved as it is a common plant on acid rocks so she had expected to see it somewhere.
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Photo taken from the railings near the castle. The group look at a tarmac footpath.
Beyond is the moss-poor playing field. The base- car-park -river junction is straight behind the group. |
Also growing in the tarmac footpath was our fourth Syntrichia:
Syntrichia ruraliformis. This has blades that are strongly curved back and they are more tapering, and are not narrowed at the base. Perhaps I'll take a photo later of the plant I brought back, and add it here later.
We climbed up to the red sandstone walls of the castle - and finally ticked off over 30 species.
It being a very cold morning we left it at that. - And I enjoyed a visit to my friend , finding more mosses in his Garden Nursery.. but that's for another day.
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| Here is a distinctive Parmelia type lichen: Punctelia subrudecta on a tree by the road as we were returning to the cars |
