After letting us in on the secret world of odonates not so long ago, trainee ecologist Anne Guichard is back with exciting news from Portmore Lough...
Studying bryophytes is hard work and usually involves collecting low-level specimens in the field and requires a lot of time to identify them in the office, especially for a beginner! I collected some specimens on Monday 27th October at Portmore Lough as part of a module in my course. I had trouble to identify one of the specimens so I sent it to my mentor John O’Reilly who determined it to be Hygroamblystegium humile, a small pleurocarpous moss, and later confirmed by Tom Blockeel (BBS referee for this group of mosses).
It’s pretty exciting news as the last accepted record in Northern Ireland was in 1951 in Lough Neagh at Loughshore Park (source Rare and Threatened Bryophytes of Ireland, Lockhart et al. 2012). The status of Hygroamblystegium humile or Constricted Feather-moss in Ireland is endangered but the lack of records can partly be explained by the fact that this small moss is easily overlooked growing in lowland wetland usually intermixed with other plants.
Great result!