Worcestershire Record No. 21 April 2007 p. 5

Mark Lawley

Our meetings are to help beginners learn their mosses and liverworts, rather than high-powered recording sessions. Please bring sandwiches to all outdoor meetings, which are on Sundays, starting at 10.30 am.

You are very welcome to suggest venues for future outdoor meetings; please include grid references and details for parking.

Winter 2007

January 14th
Ray Woods will meet us at Burfa in east Radnorshire to explore wet land on Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s reserve, and to see if we can refind Buxbaumia aphylla on the old hill-fort. Park just up the wide forestry road off the lane at SO 278609. (This is a rearranged meeting, which was snowed off last March.)

February 18th
Sam Bosanquet will meet us at the car park for the Foresters Oak, Wentwood (ST 428938), a large area of mixed woodland in Monmouthshire. We will walk east to spend the day exploring acidic grassland, conifer plantations, streamsides, a chapel and an old mill on Bica Common. Wentwood’s tracks have Pohlia spp, Calliergonella lindbergii, etc. Nearby, Gray Hill has Leptodontium flexifolium and Hedwigia stellata (both rare in vc 35). The car park is also near Wentwood Reservoir, and if water levels are low we could look for Ephemerum hibernicum, E. sessile, Weissia rostellata, etc., which are known there.

March 18th
Meet in the car park of the village hall at Alberbury, Shropshire (SJ 359143), to explore Loton deer park by kind invitation from Sir Michael Leighton, where uncommon bryophytes thrive on and near outcrops of calcareous limestone. Funaria muhlenbergii, Grimmia orbicularis, Hymenostylium recurvirostrum, Pterygoneurum ovatum and other calcicolous acrocarps are known, and there are probably more species to discover.

Mark Lawley,
12A Castleview Terrace,
Ludlow
SY8 2NG

Email: m.lawley@virgin.net