Mystery Moss

This moss is growing on the top of an old fence post at the top of the garden. Because of where it is growing its identity is baffling me. British Bryological Society (BBS) keys take me repeatedly to  the Campylopus mosses, and in particular to Campylopus flexuosus/Rusty Swan-neck Moss and to Campylopus subulatus/Awl-leaved Swan-neck Moss. In favour of the former are what BBS describes as "clusters of short-leaved deciduous branchlets ... found at the tip of the shoots".

That's what I think these are:

I took some microscope pics with two different cameras.

In favour of the latter (C.subulatus) are what BBS describes as "deciduous shoot tips" which BBS 'presumes' are the plant's means of spread since capsules are very rare but the broken shoot tips are 'frequent'. See below.

I also took some pics of these much magnified. Quite a few had what looked like roots or rhizoids, like the one in the pic here:

The leaves of C.flexuosus and C.subulatus can be 2.5mm long, which many of my sample were. C.flex leaves apparently vary between 2mm and 7mm and those of C.sub between 2mm and 4mm.

I think the leaves are awl-shaped ---> C.sub

C.flex shoots can grow up to 8cm tall but are, BBS says, "normally much less". C.sub stems can grow to 3cm but are "usually less than this". My sample, scraped off the top of the fence post, is not more than 1cm tall (or 'deep', as I think of it):

Just to help matters along, C.flex is said to typically favour habitats such as open peat, rotting stumps and logs, peaty ledges on wet rocks, wet acidic crags ... and occasionally trees.

C.sub likes open gravelly or sandy places ... river gravels, loch margins and fine gravel in scree.

Fence posts are not mentioned.

At this point in the proceedings, I went and put on my muck boots and a waterproof jacket and went outside for more samples. Here is a sample illustrative of swan-neckiness–the capsules have curvy setae. I'm pretty sure it is Campylopus flexuosus. It grows on a rotting spruce log. I couldn't see any broken shoot tips.

Below is a pic with the mystery moss alongside C.flex from the spruce log. Both C.flex samples have nice clusters of the short-leaved branchlets mentioned above.

.

So! As of today and until evidence to the contrary shows up, either from further observations or from more knowledgable people than I am, I'm going with C.subulatus for Fence Post Moss even though there is no mention of it growing on wood, either natural or treated, at all.


Here is a Wiki pic of C.sub:

And, lastly, here is a picture of a Downy Birch seed. It's the light-coloured thing at the bottom of one of the samples above pictured with the millimetre rule. I think bluetits and coaltits eat a lot of these.

Tracks in the snow

We've had a wee bit of snow this week. Corrections to my tracking surmises are welcome!

Blackbird, I think.

Blackbird tracks

<<< Fox 

Cat

Fox again, and roe deer

a 'bunch' of roe deer tracks

                                                    Heron tracks >>

Robin and cat

possibly robin again, or dunnock?

Patchwork in progress

 The gales and heavy rain of the last couple of days are set to continue for a while so I've used the time when I couldn't work outside very easily for making some new coasters. They are now for sale in my Etsy shop. Their sizes are between 12 and 14cm square.

I also finished making a table runner, which measures 79cm by 28cm

the back of the runner

And then there is work in progress. When I took this photo, my hair, which I just washed so it wasn't pinned up in its usual twist, fell and swung across the camera lens. I took another but then decided I quite like the shadow effect.

After this weekend, which will mainly be concerned with archery matters, I plan to get out several large pieces of scrappy patchwork that I made over  year ago and decide what they are going to be.

Meanwhile the winds howl, the house sings, the hail showers blow through, clattering on windows and down chimneys, and this may be the best sunlight we're going to get today:

Winter garden

Pic taken 4 August 2014

I'm working my way through the green pile at the back. The logs have been split and stored in a woodshed. I'm shredding the green stuff and piling the long branches up against the stone wall you might be able to make out beyond the piles.

So... I did today's stint of that, wearing a dust mask over my mouth and nose because if I breathe in too much of the sappy wood fumes I get a headache.

Then I went for a garden wander to see where things were at.

 The first few daffodil and snowdrop shoots are poking through

but it is really the mosses and liverworts that brighten up a winter garden, like this Variable-leaved Crestwort (Lophocolea heterophylla) on an old spruce stump

and this Neat Feather Moss (Pseudoscleropodium purum) which covers large areas of our north-east and north-west facing banks. Below is a small area under a downy birch tree.

Most of the ferns have 'gone over' for the winter, though new little ones are appearing everywhere. I like the way our large Hard Fern shows the deciduous fertile fronds in brown and the evergreen sterile ones at the same time.

Then I started looking at mosses on the dry stone wall at the top of the bank. In the middle is Rusty Swan-neck Moss (Campylopus flexuosus). More about its rustiness in another post. Behind it and in front of it is Cypress-leaved Plait-moss (Hypnum cupressiforme), and either side of the Rusty Swan-neck moss are shoots of the succulent Reflexed Stonecrop.