Bryologists Invade the Village
ON THE MORNING of Saturday 18 March I glanced across the wall and saw two figures spread-eagled on the churchyard steps. Neither moved. Were they ill? Unlikely for both to be afflicted at the same time. Were they drunk? Unlikely at that time of day. I went forward to help and one stirred. The other remained prone. Could it be murder? Then the other twitched and raised himself. They were Bryologists, and I became aware of several other weird men surrounding our churches.
This was the Cambridgeshire Bryophtye Group recording all the different mosses throughout Cambridgeshire. What had glued these two to the steps of St Mary's were the Orthotrichum Cupulatum and the Orthothrichum Anomalum. Usually easily distinguishable, on that Saturday there was a clear problem of identification. But they stuck at it, appeared to go away happy, and were very jolly people who seemed to be a cross between Three Men in a Boat and the Livingstone type characters who opened up Africa.
A few facts. Mosses and liverworts belong to a group of plants known as Bryophytes. There are clear differences between the two. World wide the number of species of mosses and liverworts has been estimated at around 14-15,000, though no-one knows for sure. Just over 1,000 occur in Britain, (289 species of liverwort and 745 species, sub-species and varieties of moss). A large proportion of the British species occur in Wales with 76% occurring in North Wales alone.