Lesser Pocket-moss

Another grey and rainy day, which is gradually turning most of the paths and tracks in our local area into slippery quagmires. However, having read how beneficial walking in rain and mud can be for your health (the cocktail of released micro-organisms helps boost the immune system), I headed out into the drizzle for a slow potter round Old Sulehay Forest.

The light was almost non-existent, so I took my flash, which has given a welcome sparkle to this tiny fruiting moss. Lesser Pocket-moss is a common enough species of slightly acid clayish soils in our local woodlands, but can only be identified when it's in fruit. Separation from a close relative is largely based on the angle of the capsule.

The flash also helped me photograph a range of small corticolous fungi and a slime-mould on the underside of a damp log which is a new species for me, and appears to be the first record for eastern England, though that probably doesn't mean much as very few people go hunting for slime moulds!

My final discovery of the day was a couple of clumps of Polypody growing on the mossy bark of ancient oak. I spotted the first clump on a fallen branch, so it was conveniently at ground level. I decided that it was unlikely to be the only specimen so started looking up into the canopy of suitable-looking trees and soon found another much larger clump at the top of the bole. Although Polypody is very common in much of northern and western Britain, it's very local in our area, especially growing on trees. 

Limestone Polypody is found on a few shaded limestone walls, and occasionally grows on Ash trunks. Common Polypody is the species generally found growing on oak, but superficially this looked more like Limestone Polypody. The two species are only reliably distinguished by microscopic examination of the spores, so I may never know. It depends whether I have the enthusiasm to go back with some long-handled secauteurs, and if I can ever re-find the tree!