The British sphagnum list stands at some 34 species. Thorne Moors SSSI has half that number (Wall 2014) and in 2016 a survey was undertaken to try to relocate a number of species not recorded in recent years. A report on the findings by Sheehan et. al. can be found in Volume 10 of the Thorne & Hatfield Moors Papers.
Follow up fieldwork is scheduled for Friday 8 December, anyone interested in taking part should contact execsec@thmcf.org for more details.
If last years fieldwork is anything to go by then this season promises to provide some interesting data. In 2016 a three hour search yielded some 13 species, this year it is hoped that there will be more time spent in the field in addition to more surveyors working the selected area around the Southern Canals.
Sphagnum squarrosum aka “Spiky Bog-moss”, Thorne Moors. Image: Helen R Kirk
Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland: a field guide is recommended reading. Anyone interested in bryophytes or mosses is encouraged to look at the British Bryological Society‘s excellent online resource of species accounts.
Another excellent resource is that developed and prepared by Paul Ardron, Ian Rotherham & Chris Percy which can be accessed via UKeconet Identification Guide: Spaganum Mosses
For more information on the species to be found on Thorne Moors see particularly Thorne Moors A Botanical Survey. Available locally from the Thorne Times office or by post (contact execsec@thmcf.org for more details).
Thorne & Hatfield Moors Conservation News 
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