We pay a passing Interest in Bryophytes

According to the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, 'Bryophytes are the oldest land plants on earth, and have been around for 400 million years or more. Although small, they can be very conspicuous growing as extensive mats in woodland, as cushions on walls, rocks and tree trunks, and as pioneer colonists of disturbed habitats.

They comprise three main taxonomic groups: Mosses (Bryophyta), Liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and Hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) which have evolved quite separately. Worldwide there are possibly 10,000 species of Mosses, 7000 Liverworts and 200 Hornworts.'

For our part, we have enough trouble with Birds, Butterflies and Wild Flowers but that is no reason for us not to look for Mosses &c. 

We may be unable to put a Name to many, if not all, of them. But that hasn't stopped us looking at them viz.

Four-Leaved Allseed: not as unusual as previously thought

Four-Leaved Allseed is included within the Kent Rare Plant Register (KRPR).

We first knowingly saw Four-Leaved Allseed locally during 2017 in two distinct locations in the London Borough of Bexley, viz.

During the past few days we have seen Four-Leaved Allseed locally viz.

in an area where it had previously been seen.

According to Kent Botany 2017: 'Polycarpon tetraphyllum (Four-Leaved Allseed) shows how difficult at times it can be to credit how quickly a plant's distribution - or at least, our knowledge of it - can change. A distribution map was given with Kent Botany 2015, in order to demonstrate a light scatter of records since the first publication (in Kent Botany) of a record for the county. Now we have moved on significantly from 2015, with 40 monad records for East and West Kent .... there were 24 sightings in 2017 alone. Recording is of course a matter of sampling, and is dependent upon a botanist being able to recognise a taxon, so any such snapshot of distribution will have a built-in time lag; but even with these limitations, the expansion of Polycarpon to such a wide-spread presence has left behind the standard Flora of the British Isles, which recognises it in the Channel Islands, the south-western English counties and only casual elsewhere. Our 2017 records continued to come from pavements, road gutters and house drives, especially those with brick pavers. It went onto the rare plant register originally as a nationally rare plant, but that status must warrant revision.' 

--------------------

Update 14 February 2018:

We have found Four-Leaved Allseed growing in three more local distinct Locations viz.

So now seen recently in three new distinct locations and five distinct Locations in toto locally.

Some City' Surprises

We decided to pop up to the City of London to see how the Rusty-Back Fern, that grows on a Wall beside All Hallows-on-the-Wall (on London Wall), is doing (the only place we have ever knowingly seen in growing).

We went via the St Mary Aldermanbury' Garden (Grid Reference TQ3281) and were Super-Pleased that we did.

We would have been happy enough with seeing some Goldfinches viz.

and a Blackbird, a Wood Pigeon, a Robin and Blue Tits viz.

But almost immediately, we noticed something familiar (and a favourite of ours) growing in the Moss, namely Rue-Leaved Saxifrage viz.

There is a Healthy Population and nicely Spread Around. Yippee.

And then we spotted something else that seemed familiar. Might it be Pink-Headed Persicaria we wondered viz.

Yup: we reckon so. A Handful of Plants. But how did they get there? Introduced or Self Seeded. The consensus would be, Self Seeded. Another Yippee.

We also noticed that an Orange Hawkweed seems to have been recently in flower viz.

And there were also a handful of Mexican Fleabane (we assume Self Seeded) flowers to be seen too viz.

Oh: and before we forget. We did get to All Hallows-on-the-Wall (Grid Reference TQ3281) and the Rusty-Back Fern is doing pretty-much OK viz.

We also spotted a Dusty looking Wall-Rue growing on a low Wall beside the Pavement viz.