This sounds more like a cheesy TV show than a mission to record mosses along the sea cliffs between Brighton and Newhaven. I managed to get out for a couple of hours on the last sunny day in December before warm wet weather descended and headed to Saltdean. Not being very systematic in my search I skipped the stretch between Rottingdean and Saltdean, where I finished off on my last outing, and headed East towards Peacehaven.
The path was soft, springy turf, less trampled than the Roedean stretch and there weren’t many gaps in the grass for bryophytes to grow. Areas where the cliffs dip down are often richer in mosses and the first hollow had a large area of thin earth covered in Microbryum davallianum. All the bits that I collected were Microbryum davallianum var. davallianum.
The next dip was damper and faced north and supported quite a few species of chalk grassland. There was Hylocomium lutescens, Didymodon fallax, Campyliadelphus chrysophyllum, Ctenidium molluscum and Hypnum lacunosum. There was also some Weissia with immersed capsules; Weissia longifolia var. angustifolia, and a straggly pleurocarp which I overlooked but Tom spotted in the samples I presented him with when I was visiting Aberystwyth on Boxing Day. This was Amblystegium serpens var. salinum, a new species to me.
Amblystegium Serpens var. salinum
At the brow of the hill, near a small monument another small patch of Weissia longifolia var. angustifolia had a few immersed capsules. There wasn’t much else up here apart from a thick layer of Tortula muralis on concrete under a bench with a marvellous view.
Tortilla muralis on a bench
Back by Saltdean seafront cafe there was more Microbryum on trampled earth but this time some of the capsules had small peristome teeth, a bit like chubby child’s fingers in woolly gloves, so there was the rare Microbryum davallianum var. commutatum mixed up with the M. davallianum var. davallianum. This hadn’t been seen in East Sussex for 40 years prior to finding it on Roedean cliffs a couple of weeks earlier. I suspect it grows all along this coast path. Many thanks to Tom for checking this for me. Syntrichia ruralis ssp. ruralis and Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum were also growing on the trampled edges of flower beds.
An afternoon trip at this time of year is always short as the light fades early and it becomes impossible to spot bryophytes, particularly the tiny, unassuming things that grow along the coast. I’ll have to return in the New Year and continue towards Peacehaven.
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