Life on the Outer Coast

I shouldn't be surprised to find interesting and unfamiliar places very close to trails that I have walked on many times. Surprised may not be the best verb to describe my reaction to this place, surprise kind of implies somthing completely unexpected. As I expect to find almost any place here interesting, it is more like having a curtain opened to a room that you had no idea was there.
Anyway, the toeslopes (between the Cross trail and the muskegs) of Gavan hill are rather interesting for a couple of reasons, one is the mixture of conifers that occur and the second is the density of the stand. There are Yellow cedar (X. nootkatensis), Western Hemlock (T.heterophylla), some Sitka Spruce (P.sitchensis) and most unusual, there are relatively large (40ft +?), straight trunked Shore pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta). I can't remember if there are any Mountain hemlock (T. mertensiana) in the stand. The sites I typically associate with such mixtures of species are poorly drained areas on flat terrain. Not so in this site. This stand seems to more the result of disturbance (logging, fire ?) and perhaps other site limitations (soil depth ?). This stand is dense and the trees are relatively small, but drainage doesn't seem to be the driving factor in stand characteristics. I need to take a shovel and a tree corer to get a better sense of this place.

It was the mosses in this site that attracted my attention most recently. Or maybe the combination of mosses found on the cedars. Present were what seem to be the regular epiphytes; Isothecium cardotti, Metzgeria conjugata (and perhaps some M. temperata), Radula bolanderi, and Frullania nisquallensis.
What seemed a bit different was the occurence of Hookeria lucens at the base of most or at least many of the cedars. I tend to think of Hookeria as occuring in wet, shady sites, sometimes on mineral soil, never on rock. I hadn't previously seen it at the base of trees.
Apometzgeria pubescens was another species I hadn't previously noticed on cedar. It was apparently different even without my glasses. The distinctive characteristic of this liverwort is the hairs on the upper surface of the thallus. The hairs give it a dull green color and a fuzzy appearance. In Jean Paton's "Liverwort Flora of The British Isles", Apometzgeria pubescens is a calcicole which rarely spreads to the bases of trees. Yellow cedar seems to be habitat for a number of calcicole bryophytes, eg Tortella tortuosa.
Claopodium crispifolium was found on the same cedar (?). I may have overlooked this one as it looks kind of like a dull sort of Hypnum. However at first glance, it looked more like a Thuidium or Helodium to me. This species does like a bit different, even to a far-sighted woman, it seems a bit duller or fuzzier. Good characteristics are the strong costa (midrib) which is hyaline, serrate leaf margins and the papillose leaf cells. The plants are somewhat regularly pinnate, yellow green like many Hypnums and have leaves with long slender points. On a good day, I can see the hyaline costa and serrate margins with my hand lens. Schofield lists the habitat as epiphytic on maple, yew and cedars as well as on rock.
Hypnum callichroum was retrieved from a few cedars in the stand. Hypnums are so much fun...H. circinale is pretty straight forward to recognize, but some of the others stretch my feeble brain or at least my ability to be certain about an identification in the field.

The following is a synopsis produced in hope of keeping the species of Hypnum straight, no doubt I'll need to adjust this first try:

H. callichroum: leaves circinate, leaf margins entire, long slender tips, irregularly pinnate, hyaloderm, stems yellow or green, capsule not ribbed, arcuate

H. dieckii: leaves circinate, leaves with tiny teeth at the apex, regularly pinnate, hyaloderm, capsule not ribbed, inclined to horizontal or nodding, near streams

H. subimponens: plants large, regularly pinnate, leaves falcate, few distinctive inflated alar cells, hyaloderm, capsules erect to suberect, typically epiphytic on trees or rocks

H. lindbergii: leaves falcate, alar cells inflated, leaves not rounded to insertion, hyaloderm, stems red, capsule ribbed when dry

H. revolutum: leaves without acuminate points, leaf margins rolled under, irregularly pinnate, no hyaloderm, capsule erect

H. circinale: small plants, leaves strongly circinate, tips toothed, alar cells differentiated, often colored, no hyaloderm, small capsule horizontal, epiphytes on trees, logs

Neckera douglasii: found in the same stand. I'm starting to wonder how many times I've ignored this species. (Kind of makes me feel like I should admit that being an idiot is kind of like being high all of the time) Previously I've found it at the Experimental station and at the Baranof cemetary on decdiuous trees. I'll have to pay more attention to this one.

A minor thrill was had in the discovery of fruiting Tetrodontium brownianum on a moist vertical rock surface in a small creeklet or rill. They kind of looked like sparse hairs on the rock. I scraped off a few of the capsules, and happily didn't lose them in transport. Managed to obtain both capsules and the tiny leaves at the base. In the collection was four toothed older capsules and younger ones covered by the calyptra.

Still not satisfied with the identification of a small liverwort from the rill. I'll have to add that one in later.