BBS SE group, Saturday 13 April, 2024
About a year ago Peter Hogan, the ranger at Buchan Country Park, invited us to survey the bryophtes in the 69 hectare park which lies just south of Crawley. I was very keen to visit. Jacqui, Tom and I looked for bryophytes in 2015 but only covered a very small area of the large site.
In the early 19th Century the area was owned by Lord Erskine who named the estate Buchan Hill after his father, the Earl of Buchan. In Victorian times the park was owned by Phillipe Saillard, (his wealth came from selling playing cards and ostrich feathers), who dammed Douster Brook to create Douster and Island Ponds. Today the park is open to the public its diverse mix of habitats are rich in wildlife.
I made a preliminary visit in the summer of 2023, in scorching heat and high bracken. Then torrential rain and high winds in October meant that we postponed this field meeting. A warm April Saturday after showers in the week was a perfect day to venture out at last.
As our small group of six congregated by the Visitor Centre Billy pointed out a Brimstone Moth, the buff-yellow triangle of its wings resting by an outside night light.
To get away from the crowds we left the car park and wild garden, marched across the bridge lined with urban mosses and just about managed to pass the large Douster Pond, its stepped outfall and castellated surround dotted with bryophytes, without stopping. We slowed down by a steep sided ditch by the track.
These woodland banks are often good bryophyte habitats and the north-facing bank was covered in a familiar patchwork of Polytrichum formosum, Pseudoscleropodium purum, Atrichum undulatum and Mnium hornum.
Lower down, on the vertical edge of the ditch, leafy liverworts including Calypogeia arguta, Diplophyllum albicans and the fragrant Lophocolea bidentata were found. Further along, the thallose liverwort Pellia epiphylla was easily spotted but little, lettuce-like leaves of Fossombronia pusilla were more elusive and a single capsule was a lucky find. The spores had the spaced out ridges of F. pusilla.
The attractive pale capsules of Pogonatum aloides nodded on long setae from aloe-like leaves alongside starry topped male plants.
A thick fur of Isothcium myosuroides wrapped around the base of a Sweet Chestnut with Cryphaea heteromalla on higher branches. The small acrocarps Dicranoweissia cirrata and Ulota bruchii grew on Silver Birch threaded through with the the even smaller leafy liverwort Fairy Beads Microlejeunea ulicina.
The woodland opened out as the path rose and Spear Moss Calliergonella cuspidata and Brachythecium rutabulum grew on a damp grassy bank. Billy found Cratoneuron filicinum on the stony track and Brad picked up Streblotrichum convolutum var. commutatum.
A few species with gemmae were found on trees, including Zygodon conoideus, which also had fragile capsules, and Metzgeria violaceae on Rowan. A rotting stump was host to the familiar assemblage of this habitat: Tetraphis pellucida with gemmae held in a cup of leaves at the shoot tip, Hypnum jutlandicum, Orthodontium lineare with drooping capsules and masses of dark green Campylopus flexuosus.
Brad and I were keen to do a bit of tetrad recording so Peter led us off the main path to Boundary Pond in TQ23H which was short of records. Luckily this was a fabulous place to rootle around for bryophytes. And other things: Peter pointed out Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni like blobs of turquoise mercury on mosses by the lake and along the stream and Billy found a spring micro-moth, Pale Feathered Bright Incurvaria pectinea by our lunch spot.
It felt like a slow start on the path down through Spruce Hill Coppice but there was bristly Polytrichum formosum and ground-hugging Hypnum jutlandicum amongst the soft leaf litter beneath conifers.
Then there was a nice area of small Silver Birch where a colony of red-stemmed Pleurozium schreberi hid amongst abundant Pseudoscleropodium purum, soft Dicranum scoparium on the ground and tree bases. Earth mounds were covered in Diplophyllum albicans, Calypogeia fissa and Dicranella heteromalla.
The lakeside made a perfect lunch stop but Brad spotted a lovely bit of bog to investigate and we were torn between Sphagnums and sandwiches.
Before lunch we found swathes of ochre Sphagnum cuspidatum and intense green Sphagnum auriculatum. After lunch we pushed further into the bog and found the delicate shoots of Sphagnum fallax and a dense mound of Sphagnum capillifolium, the domed, closely packed capitulae looking like a purple cauliflower. The aquatic plants Alternate Water-milfoil Myriophyllum alternifolium, Marsh St. John’s-Wort Hypericum elodes and Marsh Pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris were found in the Sphagnum area. Brad checked the SBRS data where they have been recorded in the same location but it was good to confirm that they are still there.
In contrast just a few glaucous shoots of Pohlia wahlenbergii poked through damp earth at the edge of the pond, where we ate looking out over the water. A few shoots of Calypogeia muelleriana wormed across a steep bank at the top of the pond.
Another moss picked out by its bright shoots was Drumsticks Aulacomnium androgynum. It was growing on the trunk of a Birch leaning over the pond, the bright balls of gemmae on sticks drawing our attention. We found a few small colonies of this delightful moss on similar pond-side trees.
Billy found Orthotrichum stramineum on Beech and there was Radula complanata on a dead tree, both pondside. There was Pulvigera lyellii on Birch and Orthotrichum pulchellum on a fallen branch.
Following the pond as it turned into a stream there were more cute epiphytes: Plenogemma phyllantha, a clean air indicator, on Willow and Zygodon conoideus. Another little cushion of Orthotrichum pulchellum had lost its pixie caps showing dark orange peristome teeth.
I had picked a stringy moss from a crumbling wooden jetty. It had the leaf shape of Calliergon and had a nerve which suggested Calliergon cordifolium but it was very weedy. In a more sheltered spot near the stream bank Brad found a slightly more robust sample. I was a bit thrown by large alar cells on my struggling plant but Brad’s was more typical Calliergon cordifolium, a moss with only five recent records in West Sussex.
As we walked along the stream into dense wet woodland we found Brachythecium rivulare on tussocks at the waters edge and Scapania undulata on inundated tree roots
Just south of Boundary Pond we crossed into another tetrad and we were joined by Peter’s colleague Debs. There was a good stretch of reallly wet woodland and we were able to compare the pale green shoots of Polytrichum commune in wet areas and Polytrichum formosum further up the banks. There was masses of Scapania undulata on roots in the clear stream, a liverwort that struggles in polluted waters.
We recorded over 70 different bryophyte species during the day. We added six new taxa to TQ23M which covers the visitor centre and centre of the park bringing it to 96 species recorded. TQ23M which covers Boundary Pond now has 60 species recorded from a start of 20. TQ23G now has 64 species recorded, all the additions from wet woodland.
Many thanks to Brad, Leo, Lorna, Billy and Peter for help and good company.
Sussex Bryophytes 