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After parking their cars near the Shell house
the party crossed the newly raised lake dam,
where beginners were introduced to Bryum bicolor
sensu stricto with its large axillary bulbils;
and in a damp area at the other end of the dam
Calliergon (Acrocladium) cuspidatum, Eurhynchium
swartzii, and Cratoneuron filicinum - the latter
two being characteristic of calcareous habitats.
The remnants of the old elder thicket by the
'Fly Beater' were systematically searched for
epiphytes. Unfortunately we were unable to
find any Orthotrichum lyellii or Cryphaea
heteromalla which now seem to be truly extinct
in the Forest, and throughout most of Essex, due
to atmospheric pollution. Small patches of
Zygodon viridissimus, Orthotrichum diaphanum
and Metzgeria furcata were found on these trees
however, together with more extensive growths of
Dicranoweisia cirrata and Bryum capillare.
A rewarding find for beginners was a carpet of
Fissidens exilis, so minute it is seldom recorded
unless in fruit, but an exquisite object under
a lens. Making our way across the wide grassy -
but rather parched - rides to the recently
coppiced Elgin Coppice, where little of interest
was evident, the party crossed into Spittlemore
Coppice, the south-east corner of which had
just been coppiced, and large numbers of Herb
Paris plants were found just emerging from the
earth. Here an extensive carpet of Fissidens
incurvus, virtually identical to F . bryoides
but with an inclined, as opposed to a vertical,
capsule was found on a bare clay boundary bank.
Moving further north into the damp woodland,
seepage spreads on this flat Boulder Clay
plateau give rise to suitable conditions for
patches of both Pellia endiviifolia, typical of
calcareous Boulder Clay, and P. epiphylla