Meeting report
Leader: David Adamson
Edinburgh Natural History Society’s visit to Riccarton had produced around 50 bryophyte species from the Tree Trail Walk the previous weekend, and two subsequent visits identified other areas of potential bryological interest, so a Lothians Bryophyte Group meeting was arranged at short notice. For the second consecutive meeting we enjoyed mild sunny weather, and recent rain meant that most of the bryophytes were in fresh condition. Ten of us met outside reception, and a short-cut through the building took us to an icehouse built when Riccarton was a private estate belonging to the Gibson-Craig family. The adjacent gardens were created in the seventeenth century and subsequent additions have created an arboretum where rare conifers are grown in a partnership with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. We later visited modern sculptural, stone-walled Brochs, a linear wetland in which large erratic boulders were home to mosses, a stream, and an old demolition site. The bryophyte species were as varied as the habitats.
A Zygodon species covering the lower part of the wall facing the icehouse turned out to be Z viridissimus. Nearby David Chamberlain found Hygrohypnum luridum and a Schistidium without hair points, both on the wall of the old Fire Pond. There was also a bright green Pogonatum lining the edge of a path in the lawn. The Brochs were the ideal place to take lunch, each Broch coming complete with a bench. These crescent shaped dry-stane walls were capped by Polytrichum species, and the spaces between the interior paving stones were filled by Cephaloziella and Marchantia polymorpha.
A strip of bare soil facing the Brochs proved to be rich in arable bryophytes, perhaps the most unexpected being found later when examining a soil sample: Ephemerum serratum. After Zuzana and Den left us to birdwatch, we spent time identifying Racomitrium species on the large, rounded boulders lining a narrow strip of marshland. We saw at least four on the day, with a fifth, R lanuginosum having been found on one of the preparatory visits.
En route to our last site David plunged down a steep bank to a stream and emerged with one of the finds of the day: Porella cordaeana. A kind student who offered to help David clamber up the slope was amused to learn how some people aged over eighty spend their Sunday afternoons.
The last site was a Buddleia-covered slope where, presumably, a building had once stood. In places this was decidedly base-rich, with Aneura pinguis, Cratoneuron filicinum Bryum pseudotriquetrum and some other odd Bryums being found on the day, and an Aloina turning up in a collection when viewed through a microscope.
Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and contributions, and particularly to David Chamberlain for sharing his knowledge and providing some amusement.
David Adamson, April 2025
Download list of species seen