Orchard Mosses

I'm extraordinarily lucky to meet some incredibly knowledgeable people during my orchard work and even luckier that they are willing to share their knowledge with me. Here the "Moss Man" shares the list of different moss species found on just 10 Bramley apple trees:

Here is the list of mosses found in a Fenland orchard. Most of the plants are fairly common; the more interesting ones are hi-lighted in blue. These are mostly Clean Air species which would have been extremely rare up until the Clean Air Acts brought in during the late 1960s. Improving air quality (plus the cessation of spraying trees with Tar Oil) has meant that fruit trees in general have been steadily acquiring more and more interesting species. However, there seems to be differences between different cultivars and their ability to host mosses. This, and the age of the trees, also seems to affect the picture though how all the different factors interact is currently not clear.

Another feature of interest is the variation which may exist between trees (and sometimes even between branches); the Best Bramley had 16 species on it, the worst had only 6 out of the 10 trees sampled.

SCIENTIFIC NAME	COMMON NAME	NOTES
Amblystegium serpens	Creeping Feather-moss
Brachythecium rutabulum	Rough-stalked Feather-moss
Bryum capillare	Capillary Thread-moss
Ceratodon purpureus	Redshank
Cryphaea heteromalla	Lateral Cryphaea	A Clean Air species
Dicranoweisia cirrata	Common Pincushion
Frullania dilatata	Dilated Scalewort
Grimmia pulvinata	Grey-cushioned Grimmia
Homalothecium sericeum	Silky Wall Feather-moss
Hypnum cupressiforme	Cypress-leaved Plait-moss
Hypnum resupinatum	Supine Plait-moss
Orthotrichum affine	Wood Bristle-moss
Orthotrichum diaphanum	White-tipped Bristle-moss
Orthotrichum lyellii	Lyell's Bristle-moss	A Clean Air species
Rhynchostegium confertum	Clustered Feather-moss
Syntrichia laevipila	Small Hairy Screw-moss
Syntrichia montana	Intermediate Screw-moss
Syntrichia papillosa	Marble Screw-moss	A Clean Air species
Ulota bruchii	Bruch's Pincushion	A Clean Air species
Ulota phyllantha	Frizzled Pincushion	A Clean Air species
Zygodon conoideus	Lesser Yoke-moss