REGIONAL MEETINGS - Natural History Museum
REGIONAL MEETINGS - Natural History Museum
REGIONAL MEETINGS - Natural History Museum
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Coombe Valley (21/2111) and Duckpool (21/2011), north of Bude – 12 June<br />
The main aim of this meeting was to survey the woodland area for a good range of species.<br />
Coombe Valley is the only site that is regarded as native for monk’s-hood (Aconitum<br />
napellus) in Cornwall; it was found in two places beside the river and proved to be the<br />
native subspecies. The valley also proved to be rich in fern species, with Blechnum spicant,<br />
Dryopteris aemula, D. dilatata, D. filix-mas, D. affinis subspp. affinis and borreri growing<br />
along the heathy rides. In marshy areas just inland from Duckpool, Equisetum palustre and<br />
Osmunda regalis were seen, both species new to the site. A nice group of Asplenium rutamuraria<br />
and A. trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens plants on King William’s Bridge added<br />
interest.<br />
Stara Woods (20/2874), south-west of Launceston – 25 June<br />
With permission from the owner to record in Stara Woods in the Lynher Valley, eight<br />
members descended down the steep wooded valley just north of Treovis (20/283740). On<br />
the shaded walls some plants of Polystichum setiferum ‘Divisilobum’ were examined. It<br />
was not certain that these had been introduced even though we were at the edge of a<br />
natural garden; they could easily have been naturally occurring plants. Further along,<br />
past much ‘normal’ P. setiferum, Athyrium filix-femina and very large-fronded Dryopteris<br />
dilatata, we reached the small stream. On one section of the stream, where it had eroded<br />
the soft rock below a hard rock layer, a small but steep waterfall and plunge pool of<br />
about 30 feet high had formed. This feature had created ideal humid conditions,<br />
hopefully, for filmy-ferns and after a little searching Hymenophyllum tunbrigense was<br />
indeed found on the rock sides with some large-fronded Dryopteris aemula plants. The<br />
lower, steeper part of the waterfall was explored by two of the group who managed to<br />
clamber down the slippery rocks and discovered huge sheets of H. tunbrigense on the<br />
dripping rock-face that the stream had created. Although this species is found in similar<br />
habitats only a few miles to the<br />
west on the edge of Bodmin<br />
Moor, this was a completely<br />
new site, and not in the granite<br />
areas where it is usually seen.<br />
photo: I.J. Bennallick<br />
Waterfall at Stara Wood<br />
Tony Atkinson photographs<br />
Hymenophyllum tunbrigense on rock-face<br />
309<br />
Not knowing what we might<br />
find, we wound our way along<br />
the stream to its confluence<br />
with the River Lynher. Further<br />
exploration of the moderately<br />
high riverside cliffs, rich in<br />
bryophytes, Athyrium filixfemina<br />
and P. setiferum<br />
(P. aculeatum was looked for<br />
but was not seen), revealed yet<br />
more patches of H. tunbrigense.<br />
Jenny Bousfield, who had<br />
arranged access and is local to<br />
the area, realised that she had<br />
seen H. tunbrigense before in<br />
another part of the wood several<br />
years before but hadn’t<br />
recognised it. Further searches<br />
for H. tunbrigense in the Lynher<br />
Valley planned for 2006 may