From the station at Bexhill it was a toss up between heading to the seafront where I knew it would be warm and sunny in the shelter of Galley Hill, or heading inland into unknown territory. It was a choice between rare mosses on the sea cliffs and negotiating new housing and roads under construction on the edge of town. I chose the latter and headed north.
A couple of years ago I had a good day rooting around Manor Barn Gardens where a link path to the1066 Way starts.
Just around the corner, the path passes a nice, knobbly sandstone wall. In all I recorded 14 different mosses on the wall, mostly along the castellated top. Orthotrichum anomalum is always nice to see with its fawn-coloured capsules bobbing above leaf cushions.
Before leaving the Old Town, a steep slope between garden lawn and drive had another nice moss community. This one included Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, Polytrichum formosum, Hypnum jutlandicum and Mnium hornum.
Then there was a dreary bit of footpath edged on each side by a slatted fence. A line of dumped earth had greened up with grass and mosses; Didymodon insulanus, Fissidens bryoides and Fissidens taxifolius, frost outlining the neat leaf edges of Fissidens taxifolius and leaflets of Cardamine.
The route got worse before it got better. Passing between an overgrown ditch on one side and a new housing development on the other, pitted mud was frozen solid and the only colour was provided by discarded drinks cans.
A couple of small areas of green surrounding Oak trees have been spared.
I emerged onto a country lane which edged a small wood, overgrown and fenced off with a new metal gate. There was a stream but it looked inaccessible. I circled the woodland along the lane, more serrated layers of Fissidens taxifolius and F. bryoides fringing the steep lane bank. At the top, a wooden gate opening onto a path winding downhill into the heart of the wood.
There were mature trees but not much epiphytic growth. At the bottom, a simple bridge spanned the stream and liverworts lined the shallow but vertical stream sides. There was quite a bit of Chiloscyphos polyanthos and Pellia endiviifolia. Plagiomnium undulatum grew higher up the bank. Something twinkling and lime-green drew me to tiny shoots of Epipyterygium tozeri, water droplets clinging to the larger of the unevenly sized leaves. It reminded me of the large colony found in Sidley Wood about a mile to the west. I might not have found this in dry conditions.
The woods were well cared for with nesting boxes and tree work. The open, trusting approach was refreshing but not wholly successful judging by the amount of litter.
A little side stream added Mnium hornum and Thamnobryum alopecurum from rooty banks.
A short walk took me to Combe Wood, another private wood, again with no bossy signs or fencing. There was a small area of Sweet Chestnut coppice with pale moss growing over the coppice stools. It was all Pseudotaxyphyllum elegans with no Leucobryums to be seen.
Unfortunately, old Ivy growth had been cut at shoulder height and dead limbs swayed around tree trunks.
The path descended into a chilly frost pocket so I sped up my foray, adding Tetraphis pellucida from a rotten stump, a few shoots of Polytrichum formosum on an earth mound, Eurhynchium striatum on the woodland floor and Zygodon conoideus on Ash.
Then, returning to the lane, I found a grassy bank facing due south and absorbed the midday sun. Looking north I could see gentle hills with patches of woodland that we will explore on the Crowhurst field meeting this weekend.
TQ70P now has 59 taxa recorded.
Sussex Bryophytes 