Wednesday, 8th Sptember 2021. Wessenden Moor / Featherbed Moss

Leader : Kay McDowell

We met on a warm, sunny day approx 26 degrees C with a light breeze, “not unlike Tenerife” exclaimed Mike. The weather was unusual as the car park is approximately 490 feet (150m) above sea level and quite often shrouded in mist and drizzle. Our aim was to concentrate on the recovering moors after drain blocking and cessation of grazing, in particular to look at ferns and willow scrub. This involved walking along the old Pennine Way and wandering off the path to look at interesting plants and potentially interesting areas.

 We didn’t have to walk far as just near the car park were six fir clubmoss (Hupherzia selago) growing in a peaty bare patch with some bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) growing nearby. The bog asphodel is a new record for tetrad SE 0506.

We examined the pale scales of narrow buckler-fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) and compared them with broad buckler-fern (Dryopteris dilitata) nearby. Mike showed us a feature of narrow buckler-fern, if you uncover the crown with your fingers digging down it is green in colour unlike broad buckler-fern which is brown.

We also recorded golden-scaled male-fern (Dryopteris affinis ssp. borreri) and looked at the ‘chanterelling’ indusia.

A small stand of grass caught our attention which appeared to be Calamagrostis, but unsure as to which one we decided to identify them using the key in ‘Hubbard’. The leaf-blade was hairy on its upper side which indicated it was purple small-reed (Calamagrostis canescens), unlike wood small-reed (Calamagrostis epigejos) which has hairless leaf-blades. The purple small-reed is a new record for this 10km square.

 In a sheltered dip we came across polypody (Polypody vulgare) and Mike showed us the annulus with a X 20 lens, seeing the orange stripes was amazing as I’d only seen these using a microscope on The Fern Guide course with Chris and Hazel Metherell in 2019.

 About five metres from the path we saw several royal fern (Osmunda regalis), including a mature plant approximately 75cm to 1m in height producing spores which was unexpected due to the height above sea level.

 Mike and I saw a strange D. borreri with congested pinnules and a bald stripe either side of the scales on the stipe which may be D. lacunosa, also known as Alpine Male-fern, which according to James Merryweather is “more frequent in higher rainfall areas of the west”. Further investigation is needed next year.

 Everyone agreed it had been a lovely day. We had met up with a couple of Saddleworth Naturalists members after not seeing them for a couple years due to the pandemic.

Additional comments from Ken Gartside : I noted a couple of interesting larvae  up there......

Broom Moth - Ceramica pisi cat/larva as spotted by Margaret and the wonderfully named True Lover's Knot - Lycophotia porphyrea caterpillar...

Not to mention the Bibio pomonae – this is another Heathland/moors specialist whilst we were up there, they were tootling about with dangly legs, same genus as St Marks fly.

Daphne mezereon Friday 9th April 2021

Finding somewhere to park was more tricky than finding the plant on my first trip of the year in to South Yorkshire with fellow botanist John Scott. We were following up a record for Mezereon (Daphne mezereon) sent in by a keen-eyed conservation volunteer working on the Trans Pennine Trail near Penistone. Unfortunately, our planned parking spot, The Blacksmiths Arms in Millhouse Green was coned off due to work on the traffic lights but John soon found a parking spot near to the walking trail. We wanted to see the plant whilst it was still in flower as we thought the pink flowers would be easy to spot amongst the undergrowth. The site wasn’t the usual habitat for Mezereon which prefers limestone soil and VC 63 records are confined to Brockadale Nature Reserve. But rail tracks typically have a limestone aggregate trackbed which can support a limestone flora.

Once we were on path it didn’t take us long to find the plant at the foot of the former railway embankment. It was quite close to a farmhouse and other garden escapes were scattered around including Wilson’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida), Cotoneaster and Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris). The plant was about 1m in height and quite floriferous, the light green leaves were already out. I could detect a sweet scent from the beautiful flowers.

Kay Woodward

A new record for VC 63 and the Peak District National Park 

On our only vice-county 63 field trip last September a small group of four of us decided to record in previously unrecorded monads on Saddleworth Moor, in particular the Wessenden Moor area. 

We had just stopped for lunch in a sheltered clough when I first spotted this fern. I thought it looked a bit odd, maybe a bit thirsty and dried up. This is because this taxa has a crinkled appearance caused by the up-turned pinnules. The common name comes from the dried fronds smelling of hay. 

We ate our lunch then Peter and I had another look at this strange looking fern. Then Louise had a look at the stipe scales which have a horizontal darker band at the base of the scale where it is attached to the stipe and she also pointed out the purplish lower part of the frond stalk and suggested it was Dryopteris aemula (hay-scented buckler-fern). 

I was gobsmacked and couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Luckily, Louise had positively identified this species before in Western Scotland. I had seen it at Derwentwater in the Lake District whilst on The Fern Guide course in September 2019 but I certainly didn’t expect to see this fern in Yorkshire as it has an Atlantic fringe distribution and also occurs on the Weald and the Yorkshire Moors. 

We took photos and a grid reference and Louise emailed Mike a member of the Yorkshire Fern Group which is part of the British Pteridological Society who hadn’t been able to come with us on our trip. He confirmed the identification a couple of days later. During his visit he also noted the plant had about 20 fronds up to 51 cm in length and was growing at an altitude of 440 metres which he thought was remarkable because its typically a lowland plant and usually grows in woodlands with well-drained acid, peaty soils. 

Hay-scented buckler-fern is a new species for VC 63 and the Peak District National Park. The Vice County 63 recording group are planning to join up with Yorkshire Fern Group to monitor the hay-scented buckler-fern. Recently there has been a moorland fire close to the site of the fern which is worrying. 

I hope to record more monads this year in the west of vice county 63 including more areas of Saddleworth Moor, Heptonstall Moor and the Forest of Trawdon, which haven’t been surveyed since 1995, so there could be more hay-scented buckler-ferns out there!! 

 Kay Woodward