A big "Thank you" to the North West Naturalists' Union - Lower Plants Group who organised this trip, and especially to Clare Shaw for leading it.
It was forecast sun all day, so I took my sun hat.
It has not rained since 11 May, three weeks ago.-- The river level near my house at was at a maximum in 11 May and has been falling since then. The river level in the Locks weir has fallen yesterday to 7 cm (11cm is considered low)
Anyway to cut this short, I was grateful that parts of today's walk would have some tree shade.
Hutton Roof is limestone pavement and wooded areas and is SSSI. It took me 35 min to get there including a 4 min stop to buy two mini "Coronation Quiches" at the cafe at Cowan Bridge. We met at Hutton Roof at SD 5705378306 and our walk was in SD5678
There were five of us on the walk. Here are some of the more unusual / rarer mosses and liverworts that we saw.
Reader- if I have made mistakes in naming these pictures please let me know.
 |
| Clare says these slabs are difficult to walk on when wet and slippery. The bedding plane is tipped at this angle. |
 |
| Entosthodon-muhlenbergii |
 |
| Need naming |
Lunch
 |
| The last time I went on a Moss walk was 6 May - King Charles' Coronation Day - On that walk I took some Coronation Quiche that I had made myself - So it was interesting to eat a bought (very mild) version. |
)
 |
| Microlejeunea-ulicina |
 |
| Cololejeunia minutissima on Hazel trunk |
Dimerella lutea (now Coenogonium luteum) (orange lichen) Metzgeria violacea and.. at lower half: Cololejeunea minutissima (not quite sure about top string of beads..)
 |
| Graphis scripta lower on a trunk |
 |
| Ditrichum flexicaule - This has leaves that are less than 3.5mm long and has flagelliform shoots (compared with D gracile which has longer leaves and no flagelliform shoots |
 |
Some of this is Rhytidium rugosum - Wrinkled-leaved Feather-moss looks a bit like big Hypnum sp but the leaves are supposed to be rugose (crinkled) - It was mixed amongst other mosses in the dry gravel/soil on the path.- . distribution map - rare. It was supposed to be in the pictures below, but now they look more like Hypnum..
|
 |
| This may be it |
 |
| Looking uphill from the Rhytidum rugosum site |
 |
| A healthy patch of Rigid Buckler-fern |
 |
| In the sun |
 |
(Apo) Metzgeria pubescens - Downy Veilwort
On the way back down Clare took us to see this p it was growing in a tree shaded area and growing ON MOSS growing on shaded boulders - (I have always seen it directly on stone or maybe trunk before) |
On the way back home I stopped off at Doris Cairns. We went for a walk and I looked at the Lesser Swinecress that I have seen growing on Burn Moor Crescent the past two years. It was still there,
No comments:
Post a Comment