I've hardly been to Brean Down this year so thought it would be a nice change to have a look round and see what I could find. As it turned out there were a few discoveries of things new to me including:
Weissia brachycarpa, Dermatocarpon miniatum, Ochesella villosa, Cryptocephalus fulvus and
Squamapion atomarium.
I started off by examining the wall next to where I parked and found Bilimbia sabuletorum plus two bryophytes that looked like
Ulota crispa and a
Tortula sp. At the bottom of the steps I ran into Bugloss for the first time this year. This plant stood out with it's large prickly leaves and small blue solitary flowers. Half way up the steps I strayed on to the grass and instantly started to find some interesting things. Here I found the
Weissia brachycarpa growing on soil on an overhang. The leaves were 1mm long and the old capsules still present which helped with the identification. I also found three
Cryptocephalus fulvus in this area, a very striking beetle but very small so crawling round on hands and knees recommended. The crescent shaped gemmae cups weren't visible so perhaps not a feature to be looked for all year round.
Eventually I reached the top and made my way westwards but only managed a short distance before finding a new lichen,
Dermatocarpon miniatum. This is a distinctive brown foliose lichen with lots of brown dots which I presume are the 0.3mm perithecia.
I also found here Black Meddick which intially gave me trouble identifying as I thought it was Clover to start with but the leaves end in a small point.
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| Black Meddick |
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| Cryptocephalus fulvus |
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| Weissia brachycarpa |
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| Dermatocarpon miniatum |
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