Thursday 29 November 2018

Syntrichia virescens

Finally an update on this Syntrichia from Llanishen in February. I have now prepared a nerve section as recommended by Nagy in the comments. This appears to confirm S. virescens new for Glamorgan. Not the best prep or photo - but compared to my usual nerve sectioning abilities I'm pretty chuffed! I'll send a voucher to Tom Blockeel.
 A small Syntrichia growing on the trunk of a street lime caught my eye as I was walking to the woodland south of Llanishen Reservoir for a quick square bash. It looks reasonably convincing for S. virescens, with toothed hairpoints and notched leaf apices, though the length of the basal cells (30-62 microns, averaging 37-45 microns) straddles the ranges given in Smith for differentiating S. virescens and S. montana. It was certainly smaller than typical montana, but as virescens would be new for VC41 I'm being cautious and seeking the opinion of others - thoughts welcome.



4 comments:

  1. You need cross section from the leaf :)
    It's a hungarian blog but with useful photos.
    http://andorterepi.blogspot.hu/2015/04/a-hegedus-syntrichia-k.html

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  2. Thanks Nagy. Those photos look very helpful. I'll give it a go!

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  3. Nice one George, the Glamorgan list has done well recently. I really need to section the plants on the Dawn Redwoods on Gorseinon...

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  4. Tom Blockeel has now confirmed this as new for VC41 from a sample I sent him.

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