Ashes to ashes

Last night, I found a newt lying apparently dead on a country lane. I picked it up and it moved a little, so I decided to take it home to check for damage (a car had just passed):

Male Smooth Newt

It seemed ok and survived the night, so I took it up to the local stream and released it there.

The stream runs alongside a country lane that is edged on both sides by Ash trees:

Craigs Road with Ash trees

Given that Chalara fraxinea has been detected not far from here, I rather suspect that these trees won't last much longer (hence the title of this post). This will, of course, be disastrous from the perspective of the trees, but Ash isn't the obligate food source of very many fungi or insects, so the impact on overall biodiversity is not likely to be as bad as it could have been.

The stream runs alongside the right-hand side of the road in the deep shade of the trees, and is a great source of water plants, with numerous liverworts and mosses on the rear wall:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage with the liverwort Conocephalum conicum

Many of these plants like dark, damp conditions, so I suspect the rear wall flora will be altered until some other trees grow to provide more shade.

The stream is where I always find the first flowering specimens of Lesser Celandine, and a few flowers were just beginning to open:

Lesser Celandine just opening

Just as I was taking the above shots, I heard the unmistakeable deep croak of the Raven. I looked up and saw a pair circling overhead:

Ravens over Craigs Road

They circled and kept me in view for quite a while before flying off west. I managed this shot showing the very distinctive tail:

Raven

At the top of the stream, where it emerges from an underground run, there is a wall that is always good for a few moss shots. This is a back-lit shot of Tortula muralis:

The moss Tortula muralis

I like to think that the setae (the 'stalks' that hold the capsules aloft) are light pipes, driving sunlight directly to the interior of the plants.

The capsules of many mosses are held well clear of the foliage in order to enhance the chances of spore dispersal, but Grimmia pulvinata continues to puzzle me with its insistence on keeping the capsules buried deep under the leaves:

Grimmia pulvinata, with buried capsules

You can just make out the brown capsules in that shot.

This shot of Barbula unguiculata would make a nice banner for somewhere:

Barbula unguiculata

 On the other side of the road, we have an untended copse where dead wood is ideal for fungi. This white crusting fungus is Meruliopsis corium:

Meruliopsis corium

There are also a few patches of Snowdrops in the same area:

Snowdrops

A quick check on the Willows showed that the catkins are well advanced, so perhaps spring is on the way after all.

Willow catkins

More moss

A rare bit of sun and I was out like a shot.

Wall-tops are the place to find a number of mosses including the very handsome Tortula muralis (guess where it got its specific name from).

Last year's capsules are still in place (those are the taller, brown ones), but if you look closely you can see the new ones emerging just above the leaves.

Tortula muralis capsules - old and new

Emerging capsules of Tortula muralis

To give some sense of scale, the new capsules are about 5mm long.

The rear walls of ditches are also rich in moisture-loving plants. The following shot shows at least two species of liverwort and one moss.

1) The thallose liverwort Conocephalum conicum
2) The moss Plagiomnium undulatum
3) The liverwort Plagiochila porelloides

Liverworts are either 'thallose' (flat and ribbon-like) or 'leafy', and we have one of each in the shot above. The area in the shot is about 20mm across.

And we're off!

The first signs of spring activity are always near the freshwater stream. Maybe the constantly-flowing water helps the temperature.

A single flower of Lesser Celandine - Ranunculus ficaria - peeked out from the sodden leaves:


The back of the ditches are always covered in mosses and liverworts, but this is the time of year to look for them, since annual vegetation hasn't yet concealed them. This is the liverwort Conocephalum conicum, which I always think has reptilian-like structures:

But wait.....what's that pale-green growth at the top right of the image? Much zooming in reveals another liverwort: Lophocolea bidentata. The shoot you see is about 10mm long and 3mm wide. This is a new species for me and a delightful discovery for my first walk of the year on the hedgerow:


Mosses are also looking good. The first is Tortula muralis (note the white-haired leaves at the base).


And this is an early glimpse of Bryum capillare (leaves are about 1mm x 2mm):

I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of mosses.

Hard Shield Fern fronds are still in good condition:


And finally, Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot has reappeared in a muddy track:


Not bad for the first outing of the year.

Through the ice

I took a little walk along the northern end of leg 1 today. It was about 1° in the sun and zero in the shade. This part of the walk is under Ash trees and has an excellent wet area in a rutted entrance to a field.

Given the long spell of cold weather I was quite surprised to find so many plants showing new growth.

First, Brooklime - one of the Speedwells:

Note the fallen piece of the lichen Ramalina fastigiata floating on the Ash seed.

Next, a few specimens of Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot were actually encased in ice:

Watercress was also making an appearance:

The back of the stream was covered in plants of all kinds. This shot has Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (centre), Lesser Celandine (top), Cow Parsley (left), and Hard Fern (left).

The back of the stream is also home to a wide range of liverworts. The central specimen is the thallose liverwort Conocephalum conicum on a background of a much smaller liverwort that I haven't had time to identify yet. Conocephalum group about 15 cm. across.

And here's a close-up of the thallus:

Humidity-loving ditch-dwellers

Liverworts are fascinating little plants that can be found on the back wall of ditches, on damp walls and hidden in rock crevices, woodland paths and tree-trunks : anywhere that it's fairly dark and damp.

Thallose liverworts are easy to identify: they are ribbon-like with a flat main structure (thallus). This is Conocephalum conicum, showing the lizard-skin-like thallus which readily identifies it.
(Width of thallus about 10mm):
And here's a habit shot, specimen about 10cm. long:



Leafy liverworts are more difficult to separate from mosses without magnification. This wonderful specimen is Plagiochila porelloides, with the main 'stem' in the foreground being about 12mm long.
You really do need to get a magnifying glass on these to identify them as liverworts, and you need higher magnification to identify them to species. The leaves are often very complex, with folds and pockets, presumably to retain water if their source dries out.

Having said all that, what about this one?



Well, just to complicate things, this is a moss: Hookeria lucens. The leaf cells are so large you can see them with the naked eye. Specimen shown about 15mm long.

So what differentiates a liverwort from a moss? The defining difference is in the rhizoids (root-like structures used to grip the substrate). In mosses these are multi-cellular, but in liverworts they are single-celled structures. That's all very well under the microscope, but in the field we have to use a combination of features, such as leaf arrangement, leaf lobing (no mosses have leaf lobes), presence of thallus and shape of reproductive organs, if visible.