Meeting report

he Annual General Meeting and Bryological Symposium were held at the University of Wales , Bangor , on 9-11 September 2005. Between 1950 and 2000, under the impetus of Paul Richards, who was Professor of Botany from 1950 to 1976, the university had been one of the major academic institutions in Britain with a strong bryological specialisation. Many prominent British bryologists of the last fifty years have worked or been trained at Bangor . Although students are no longer exposed to bryological research, there is a rich and well-studied bryophyte flora to explore in north-west Wales .

Some 45 participants attended the meeting, and it was a particular pleasure to welcome to Bangor three foreign BBS members – Sanna Laaka-Lindberg and Alain Vanderpoorten (who both gave presentations at the symposium) and Herman Stieperaere (a BBS Council member).

On Sunday 11 September most participants joined the field excursion to Nant Gywnant. We concentrated on the bryophytes in a stand of ash-alder woodland above Hafod Rhisgl (mostly in SH6552) on the east slopes of the valley opposite Snowdon . It has an impressive Atlantic flora on rock outcrops, boulders and trees and in seepage zones and stream gullies.