Today dawned cold but dry and, provided you were well wrapped up against the cold, it turned out to be an ideal morning for a walk in Norwich’s Earlham Cemetery looking at mosses and liverworts.

Cryphaea heteromalla, on an oak branch, just one of our finds.

About twenty people came along, evenly split between Friends of Earlham Cemetery and the Norfolk and Suffolk Bryological Group, one of the local groups of the British Bryological Society. Members of the Bryological Group did the identification but kindly let us tag along. A hand lens proved to be useful to pick out details of leaves and capsules and I took home a couple of small specimens in envelopes for a closer look at home.

I had forgotten how interesting mosses and liverworts (bryophytes) are. About thirty years ago I spent a week in the west of Scotland studying these plants during the day (and drinking in the evenings) but I’ve not spent much time looking at them since. Today brought back good memories, with familiar yet exotic names such as Atrichum undulatum, Dicranium scoparium and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus reminding me of more youthful days. Nowadays English names exist for these mosses (Common Smoothcap, Broom Fork-moss, Springy Turf-moss respectively) but I think I’ll stick to the scientific names, as those are what I learnt.

In the afternoon it rained heavily and I was glad to be sitting indoors. But on the next free, dry day it’ll definitely be time for me to take another look at these lovely plants.

Earlham Cemetery mosses and liverworts walk, 31st January 2015.

The list of Moss and Liverwort species found in Earlham Cemetery is on the Friends of Earlham Cemetery website. (At time of writing today’s specimens still need to be added.)

Information sheets on individual moss and liverwort species can be found on the British Bryological Society website.