PURPLE HELLEBORINE AT WOLVES WOOD, HADLEIGH
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BRYOPHYTES IN SUFFOLK 2013 R. J. FISK I suppose it was inevitable, having said in my report for 2012 the liverwort Cololejeunea minutissima was still scarce in the county despite spreading nationally that I should start to find it regularly. By the end of the year I had found it at thirteen new locations in eleven tetrads and on a total of sixteen individual trees. The host species were also wide ranging including ash, oak, sycamore, silver birch, willow and lilac. One new taxa was added to the Suffolk list, the aquatic moss Fontinalis antipyretica var. cymbifolia from Oulton Dyke TM59B in July. This is quite different from the normal variety looking much bigger because the leaves are not folded in half, just very concave. To compensate another moss Schistidium apocarpum has been removed from the Suffolk bryoflora. The Schistidium apocarpum complex was revised in 1996 and the differences between some species are difficult to interpret. The record of S. apocarpum from Brent Eleigh was due to misidentification and in fact it is now realised that this species does not occurr anywhere in south east England. The most exiting discovery of the year was of the moss Antitricia cutripendula on the branch of an ash beside the stream to the mill at Clare TL45S in October. This species disappeared from lowland Britain in the nineteenth century because of air pollution. It had always been rare in Suffolk with only four records, the last from Framlingham some time before 1856. It was found in Cambridgeshire a few years ago and in Norfolk last year so maybe this is another epiphyte that is making a comeback with reduced air pollution. Another moss that had not been seen in Suffolk for over one hundred years was Sanionia uncinata and which had been near the top of my wanted list for a long time. It turned up on sallow at Aldringham TM45P in April. During a visit to Little Blakenham chalk pit in April I refound the mosses Pterygoneurum ovatum a very rare species in Suffolk and Tortula vahliana one of Suffolks few BAP mosses. The following are other interesting records made during 2013. Mosses Acaulon muticum Bryum archangelicum Cinclidotus fontinaloides Cinclidotus fontinaloides Dicranum tauricum Encalypta vulgaris Grimmia dissimulata
Beside a path in Bradfield Woods NR TL95I, 4 January. Orfordness TM45K, 1 June. Mettingham (Ellingham Mill Pool) TM39Q, 17 September. Long Melford TL84L, 14 October. First record from West Suffolk, VC26. On a tree stump in Arger Fen NR TL93H, 2 February. Berner’s Heath TL87D 27 November. On wall of church, Hadleigh TM04G, 14 November.
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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 50
Mosses continued Grimmia dissimulata Hennediella macrophylla Hennediella macrophylla Hennediella stanfordensis Zygodon conoideus with sporophytes Zygodon conoideus with sporophytes Pogonatum aloides Pohlia lutescens Plagiomnium cuspidatum Platygyrium repens Rhytidiadelphus loreus Ulota coarctata
On wall of church, Nayland TL93S, 28 November. On soil around a badger sett, Groton Wood TL94R, 10 January. On a roadside bank, Hadleigh TM04B, 25 November. Little Blakenham chalk pit TM14E, 15 April. Newbourne Springs NR TM24R, 5 February. Captain’s Wood NR TM45G, 17 December. Bank of pool Captain’s Wood Sudbourne, 17 December. At edge of a ride in Combs Wood NR TM05N, 27 February. On roots of willow, Long Melford TL84L, 14 October. On branch of an oak tree, Barnhamcross Common TL88Q, 10 October. In fen beside old railway track, Thorpeness TM45U 19 April. on branch of an oak tree Captain’s Wood NR, 17 December. The second record for Suffolk.
Liverworts Metzgeria consanguinea (M. temperata), Nowellia carvifolia Nowellia carvifolia Plagiochila asplenoides
On trunk of an ash tree in Groton Wood NR TL94R, 10 January. The first record fromWest Suffolk, VC26 on decaying pine log, Brandon Country Park TL78X, 11 September. on decaying pine log, Elveden Forest TL88A, 26 September. on side of a ditch, Stoven Wood TM48L, 20 March.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 50 (2014)