NEW BRYOPHYTE DATA FROM A RECLAIMED MINING AREA NEAR VARTEG, SOUTH WALES

Abstract

The survey covered a 30 old reforested area with the method “Cradle for Nature” strategy using mosaic tree planting. Except for a 2005 bryophyte survey no recording of mosses and liverworts has been carried out on the Varteg Colliery site in the past so its bryophyte flora was totally unknown before 2005 The bryophytes were collected from soil and from tree trunks in 3 subplots within the reforestation plots. The several thousand different tree species and the plot localities were recorded. The Varteg test sites are located between 360 and 370 metres above mean sea level on the western outcrop of the South Wales Coalfield in Torfaen County Borough. The data will be the part of the heritage of Cradle for Nature project. The author was one of the volunteers working at the site in 2017 so the collection of the bryophyte species was made by the author. The results show a typical total for a semi-upland site where woodland species have been present only since the forest plantation had been getting older and saxicolous species are primarily acidophil. Concerning the distribution of the woodland species from the surrounding areas the bryophyte species of some neighbouring old Welsh oak trees were collected. On the basis of the results the number of species is 54 in the plantation plots and the rate of woodland species have grown in the plots which generated higher species number for the whole region which is higher than100