They Went Up Helvellyn Looking at Moss — and Found One That's New to England Experts Find a Moss New to England on the Helvellyn Range
Marra Mode is how we'd tell you this in the Co-op. Switch it off for the straight version.
Eighteen moss experts went up Deepdale, Brown Cove and Nethermost Cove with the National Park. They found a species new to England, and a few that hadn't been seen in Westmorland since the 1970s. Next time you're on Helvellyn, have a look at the green carpets.
If you walk Helvellyn and you've been treating the green stuff on the rocks like carpet, have another look.
Eighteen folk from the British and Irish Bryological Society came up to survey mosses and liverworts on the high ground round Helvellyn and Fairfield. Specialists in the upland stuff. Nick Hall, Nature Recovery Ranger at the National Park, put them up. Clare Shaw, who records Westmorland for the society, wrote it down.
These plants are tiny — millimetres, maybe a couple of centimetres — but they hold water, slow the run-off, take the edge off a flood, and give beetles and fungi somewhere damp to live. Sphagnum, the bog one, is what makes peat. UK peat's holding about 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. More than a thousand kinds of them in the country.
Headline of the weekend: Mark Lawley found Chionoloma hibernicum in Link Cove, up Deepdale. New to England. It turned up twice more before they came down. They also knocked four species off a fifty-year gap in the Westmorland records, and filled cards on Brown Cove, Red Tarn, Nethermost Cove, Cawk Cove — the lot.
National Park staff got them onto the hill, including a couple of Land Rovers up the Glenridding track so they weren't spending the whole day on the slog. Elmhow and Deepdale Hall Farm let them park and walk in.
The write-up's on the Lake District National Park site. If you want to get into it, that's the British and Irish Bryological Society.
Next time you're up there, look at the green carpets. That's not decoration.
Fun Fact: one of the mosses, Tetraplodon mnioides, grows on carnivore scat and carrion. In Cawk Cove they found a patch on a sheep bone.
Members of the British and Irish Bryological Society surveyed high ground around Helvellyn and Fairfield, hosted by the Lake District National Park. They recorded a moss new to England, and several species not seen in Westmorland for more than fifty years.
This is for anyone who walks the Helvellyn range and has stepped over the green stuff without a second look.
A group from the British and Irish Bryological Society recently visited the Lake District to survey mosses, liverworts and hornworts on high ground around Helvellyn and Fairfield. There were 18 of them, including specialists in upland species. They were hosted by Nick Hall, Nature Recovery Ranger at the Lake District National Park Authority. Clare Shaw, the society's recorder for Westmorland, wrote up the finds.
These plants — bryophytes — are only millimetres or centimetres tall, but they do serious work. They hold water, slow run-off, take the edge off flooding, keep little pockets of humidity, help soil form, and give shelter to beetles, fungi and bacteria. Sphagnum moss, the one on marshes and moors, is what builds peat bogs. UK peat stores about 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. There are more than 1,000 kinds of bryophyte in the UK.
The weekend's headline find was Chionoloma hibernicum, recorded by Mark Lawley in Link Cove, above Deepdale. It is new to England. It turned up at two further spots later in the trip. The group also found four species that had not been recorded in Westmorland for more than 50 years, and a run of scarce montane plants on the coves around Helvellyn — Brown Cove, Red Tarn, Nethermost Cove, Cawk Cove and Link Cove.
Access and a lift up the Glenridding track were arranged with National Park staff, including Keith Waite, India Tuer and Rebecca Walden. Parking at Elmhow and access at Deepdale Hall Farm made the Deepdale day possible.
If you want to know more, the write-up is on the Lake District National Park website. The British and Irish Bryological Society exists to study, conserve and get more people looking at these plants.
Next time you are up there, look at the tiny green carpets on the wet rock. That is the story, not the backdrop.
Fun Fact: one of the mosses they found, Tetraplodon mnioides, grows on carnivore scat and carrion. In Cawk Cove they had a patch on a sheep bone.