George R. L. Greiff

First record of large leafy liverwort Bazzania trilobata for co Derry (H40) since 1834! Also growing alongside it was Hymenophyllum tunbrigense which is a new county site too.

Ness Country Park, Co. Derry.

@bsbiireland.bsky.social @bbsbryology.bsky.social

#bryophytes #ferns #botany

This is awesome! Good luck.

I can't stand seeing those Cladonia mummies. Another frustrating one is the harvesting of large patches of Leucobryum for terraria etc. Really damaging to populations.

Sounds like an exciting find!

They do look like hamster ears.

Nice. This one was full of them. I couldn't find any normal tubers...

@bbsbryology.bsky.social do you also see these sometimes on tuber-bearing Bryaceae?

Micrograph of liverwort cells, some of which are infected with brown fungal hyphae while others are healthy and contain plastids and oil bodies.

A final micrograph for today showing mycelium of an Epibryon sp. fungus inside liverwort cells. Most cells are infected but some in the lower part of the photo are healthy, as evidenced by the absence of hyphae and the presence of oil bodies.

Definitely. They are very difficult to study using classical morphological methods, and getting DNA sequences and/or cultures would probably also be quite tricky.

A rhizoidal gall on Bryum sp. from mud in a reservoir draw-down zone. It is club-shaped and curved, containing five chytrid zoosporangia inside it, which are spherical. Some of the zoosporangia have thread-like exit tubes leading to the outside, which liberate zoospores that infect other cells.

Micrograph of a rhizoid gall caused by a chytrid on Bryum moss. The infected cell contains several zoosporangia, some of which have thread-like exit tubes that release flagellated spores. Chytrids are interesting fungi that mostly lack hyphae and have mobile spores.

B. scapaniae is closely related to B. gymnomitrii on Gymnomitrium species. Both fungi grow on the lower parts of host shoots. The larger ascomata of the latter make it slightly easier to spot. Both fungi are very rarely recorded.

A single shoot of Scapania undulata photographed against a white background. The apex is green while the brown lower parts display infection (arrowed). Bryobroma scapaniae presents as clustered black ascomata and infected tissues are covered by a dense, dark brown mycelium network.

Zoomed in on some infected leaves with dark brown, branching mycelium and black fruitbodies.

Clusters of black fruitbodies on largely leafless basal part of the plant shoot.

Great to find the fungus Bryobroma scapaniae on Scapania undulata in Bannau Brycheiniog in Wales a few days ago. I think this is the third ever record of the species, and I see how it is very easy to miss, with the dark fruitbodies disguised against the black host stem. From a rock in a stream.

Definitely seen similar drops before. Not sure if that fungus specifically, but it happens.

Hydnellum peckii can look like this, perhaps it is a place to start. Some mushrooms exude these syrup-like droplets.

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Cheers David!

Thanks, Jill! It was an unexpected honour and it has been amazing to see how my cohort has grown and developed over the years. Now, for the final push! @gpsep.bsky.social

* yellow superficial antheridia. I think those in Riccia etc. are immersed but not sure about that.

Seems reasonable. I don't know it very well, but it is a spready species. The yellow antheridia seem to rule out other genera to me. It does look very strange in general, though! Good luck and hopefully sporophytes won't be needed for it!

Seems like a Fossombronia of some kind but not sure which.

Yeah, I was on one about a month ago and it was dreadful.

That looks good for it, to me.

The book, "The Structure and Life of Bryophytes" by E. V. Watson. It has a green and white cover with line drawings of bryophytes on it.

Using one of my favourite bryophyte books to help with my thesis. It is a difficult read, densely packed with all kinds of interesting and almost forgotten information. I must have read it half a dozen times, and each time, I notice something profound that I either missed or didn't understand before

"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people

Nive! A vivid species.

Very nice Polytrichum strictum too.

I totally agree. I received it yesterday, and I think it strikes a great balance between being interesting to anyone and useful for specialists. A higher taxon approach really makes you see the diversity and disparity of the three groups. Congrats again @jowilbraham.bsky.social

In the UK, we bracket species that have not been recorded for 50 years. So, they're included in lists but in parenthesis. Bracketing does not necessarily mean something is locally extinct so a follow-up survey at the previously known sites could justify stretching it to that as you say.

Any Physcomitrium there too?

It's publication day for Mosses, Liverworts and Hornworts of the World!

Immerse yourself in the miniature world of these fascinating plants, delve into their evolutionary past and look ahead to what might be in store for their future.

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