YNU VC63 Field Excursion to Thorpe Marsh 14tn June 2014 Bryology Report

摘要

The old railway embankment bisecting the reserve from east to west was probably the most productive area for the bryologist. With a substrate rich in acid clinker/ash and basic slag ballast, it exhibited a high degree of opportunity for both calcicoles and acidophiles, and a variety of common examples from both persuasions had become established, interspersed with more neutral species. Within a footfall of acid-loving Campylopus introflexus and Brachythecium albicans could be found calcicoles such asPlagiomnium undulatum and Didymodon insulanus, against a general background of neutral and ubiquitous Brachythecium rutabulum and Kindbergia praelonga. Small acrocarps such as Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum, Barbula unguiculata and B. convoluta had become established where the substrate had become hard-packed. The embankment, shaded by mature oaks and hawthorns, had Fissidens taxifolius and F. bryoides with a little Mnium hornum and Polytrichum juniperinum.