There are still six tetrads in TQ33 which are clearly under-recorded, so a couple of days ago I headed to the part of Worth parish just west of Crawley Down to make a dent in TQ33I, an area on the Tunbridge Wells Sand. In the database we had two records from Malcolm McFarlane in Rowfant Quarries from 1957 (Pohlia nutans and Bryum dichotomum) and 14 from 1982 when Mary Scruby visited Horsepasture and Layhouse Woods. So, there was much to do.

Parking in Turners Hill Road in front of the dentist’s, the gravel quickly added a handful of species, along with a few more that had fallen off the roof, and then I headed along the footpath in Huntsland Lane. This resulted in a steady stream of other common species, including lots of Syntrichia papillosa on Ash, though the previous night’s rain had clearly washed away most of the gemmae.

Syntrichia papillosa

A dog-walker directed me to Bushy Wood, which hadn’t originally part of my plan, but was worth exploring, as it is a patch of Ancient Woodland with many species that I didn’t see during the rest of the walk, including Orthodontium lineare, Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans, Calypogeia muelleriana, Thuidium tamariscinum, Campylopus flexuosus, and a pair of Zygodons. Especially pleasing were some fine tufts of Orthotrichum stramineum, which I caught just as I was about to leave the wood and return back to the main footpath heading west.

Orthotrichum stramineum

Running through the checklist of species, I realised one thing I’d not seen was Dicranoweisia cirrata; so, turning my head to the old fence posts, its fruiting form came into view, effectively to order. If only all bryophytes materialised as soon as you think of them!

Dicranoweisia cirrata

The track passed by the seriously thatched Wallage Hall, which was apparently only built in the 1990s, though at first sight looked a hundred years old. It had abundant mosses adorning it, but was completely inaccessible, so I could only imagine what I might have missed.

I definitely did miss some other things as I crossed an arable field, well adorned with bryophytes, including Tortula truncata, Barbula unguiculata, Bryum rubens, and Dicranella schreberiana. A Riccia also stood out, and I was just taking some photos when a couple of walkers came up behind me and asked what I was doing. “I knew it must be plants” one of them said, and we got talking for several minutes. Unfortunately, this had distracted me from the task in hand and I also headed off along the footpath, and only later did Tom observe some other species in my photos which I hadn’t collected, and so (embarrassingly) are unrecorded. Still, Tom confirmed one Riccia as sorocarpa, based on the hyaline margin and very sharp groove. The field is definitely worth a repeat visit, if I can get there next weekend.

Riccia sorocarpa

Now turning south the path went through the grounds of Rowfant House, a large complex of buildings spanning many hundreds of years, some parts of which date back to the fifteenth century. New species were beginning to be rather less frequent now, though there was Rhynchostegiella tenella on the sandstone bridge near the house, and finally Barbula convoluta just off the Worth Way.

In the end I had covered 3.5 miles in 3 hours, and the tetrad list is now on 64 taxa. If only I had been a bit more attentive near the Riccias!

Rowfant House