As celandines flower in hedge bottoms and Cuckoo-pint unfurls its leaves, Great Tits sing Tea-chaa, Tea-chaa, then we know that Spring is on its way and in the sunshine, gentle breeze and blue sky, what could be more delightful than a walk to record bryophytes. The 27 February was just such a day. According to Wikipedia The Times reported that Wadhurst was the best place to live in the UK in 2023, so what better place to commence one’s walk. Indeed it is a most interesting, delightful and surprisingly shop-filled small town, and I was wise to arrive at 7:30am so that I gained parking. The church is of Wealden sandstone, and I gather has interesting iron grave memorials inside to the old iron masters of the town, so next time I must try and get access. The church and Blacksmith’s Lane are both in TQ63K which is currently pink (5-19 taxa) and I was aiming for TQ67L showing red (up to 5 taxa although I had added 24 last year). So my efforts were brief around the north-west side of the church (Didymodon insulanus, Hypnum cupressiforme), and in the lane – Didymodon nicholsonii and Syntrichia latifolia which these days one would be surprised not to find in the middle of a quiet Wealden lane.
Map of my route and stopping points mentioned in text in purple; sites visited last year red circles (north of the tetrad)
A low sandstone boundary with a bit of mortar around a traditional farmhouse supported a nice carpet of Streblotrichum convolutum var. commutatum (wavy leaves) which I haven’t recorded before. Perhaps I over-look it; just recording as S. convolutum, but I note the Atlas of 2014 decided not to separate records due to uncertainties with identification, and the only two records nearby on NBN were from 2015 when the South-eastern BBS group found it in Bedgebury and at Scotney Castle.
Beyond the farm, the track became bedrock sandstone and a neat hedge of hawthorn and holly acted as a sun trap. As the path continued the bank supporting the hedge became a nice rock face, low but protected and rich in Aulacomnium androgynum with lots of drumsticks bearing gemmae. Dicranella heteromalla and Ceratodon purpureus (both sterile) were here, and a nice tuft of Weissia controversa with masses of fruits. The Aulacomnium a well-rotted wood species in my experience but here on the humus rich sandstone, briefly led me into thinking the Weissia was Dicranoweisia cirrata, which superficially it resembles. Reading the Field Guide, I see Dicranoweisia is quite common on rock in northern Britain. (Incidentally a species that TQ63L still requires).
The opposite side of the track was three year old seeded grassland, but a triangle had remained untreated grassland through these periods of farming change and supporting a richer flora, with Oxy-eye daisy leaflets, Brachythecium albicans amongst the Calliergonella, Rhitidiadelphus squarrosus and tiny shoots of Polytrichum formosum. I met the farmer walking his dog. Until Covid, he had had two hop gardens; they were now laid to grass and sheep grazed, as the market had shrunk and getting labour was very difficult. I noted as with most farmers, he was at least as old as me, and I wonder who is going to manage these farms in the future.
Old hop gardens, put to sheep since Covid-19 epidemic
The track passed through a gate and sloped down more steeply between steep slopes several metres high with mainly beach trees on the southern side. This encouraged a more woodland flora (TQ64865 32172) with Atricum undulatum, Eurynchium striatum in good quantity on the north-facing side, Mnium hornum, Isothecium myosuroides especially on the roots, and a little Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans and Plagiothecium succulentum near the next gate where the path levelled off, and hornbeam and an old Field Maple appeared along the track (TQ65151 32343). The latter had Neckera complanata around the first 30cm above ground and above this, small patches of Zygodon conoideus.
The next gate led into rough pasture that appeared not to have been grazed for a year or so, and logs and hedge jumps suggested it was sometimes used for horse training. Most of the pasture had been ploughed and reseeded in recent years judging by the terrain and vegetation, but the patches around which the footpath skirted close to what was almost certainly an old quarry, water-filled at the pass, steep sloping sides dominated by just Kindbergia, there were a number of old ant-hills both west and east of the quarry. Only one of the western ones bore any moss of interest, Bryum rubens, but the eastern side had more anthills and several of these a mixture of Tortula truncata, Barbula unguiculata with fruit and Pleuridium acuminatum with fruit. I looked hard for male branchlets, but there was no sign of them.
Old ant-hill with Tortula truncata and Pleuridium
The path now met up with a junction of paths that head to Cousley Wood or around Bewl Water. I had planned for longer, but the chores needed attending. So I made a brief search of the stream area as it met the path. Pellia epiphylla (the expected species, but nice to confirm with views of single-celled mucocilary hairs as Tom Ottley explained in this blog to me a few years ago), Chiloscyphus which I understand is always C. polyanthos in this part of the world, Rhizomnium punctatum just above the stream edge, and on a large poplar fruiting Cryphaea heteromalla, patches of Zygodon which this time when examined at home, the gemmae showed it was Z. virridissimus, Lewinskya affinis with old and very young fruit coming, and a small number of diminutive tufts of Orthotrichum pulchellum, the capsules on slightly longer stalks, the calyptra showing the dark dots at the bases of the ribs, a species that I am now finding more often.
The short mucociliary hairs of Pellia epiphylla
I had found 41 species in TQ63L today; with lots of over-lap from the 24 in the northern area last year, this left 5 species from then to make the tetrad total 46, so a reasonable start, but almost certainly with such nice habitats more could be added.
Sussex Bryophytes 