Ferns and clubmosses

Now don't laugh, but I've developed a bit of a liking for ferns and clubmosses partly because there are very few other local naturalists with the same niche interest. Last weekend I did my annual count of moonwort on Coity Tip, Blaenavon. In previous years numbers were well into the hundreds, unfortunately on this occasion I could only see around nine, but the weather on this visit was not conducive to botanising, so this may be an underestimate.

By the afternoon things on the weather front had improved so I headed for Canada Tips to check on the most southerly population of alpine clubmoss in Wales. With an apparent increase in scrambler bike activity around the tips I was relieved to find the plant safe and well, along with a small number of fir clubmoss. I've not yet made contact with adders tongue fern this year but hope to do so within the next few weeks. I am also in the process of confirming a record of royal fern I found recently in an acidic flush between Varteg and Blaenavon. This fern is only known from three or four localities in the vice county of Monmouhshire.