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Arable Bryophytes – A field guide to the mosses, liverworts and hornworts of cultivatedland in Britain and Ireland by R. PorleyReview by: Torbjörn TylerLindbergia, Vol. 33, No. 2 (2008), p. 75Published by: Oikos Editorial OfficeStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27809545 .

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Book review Lindbergia 33: 75, 2008

Copyright Lindbergia 2008, ISSN 0105-0761

Porley, R. 2008. Arable Bryophytes - A field guide to the mosses, liverworts and hornworts of cultivated

land in Britain and Ireland. ISBN 978-1-903657-21-8.139 pp.

Arable bryophytes, or better bryophytes growing on ex

posed cultivated soil, have commonly been overlooked

by bryologists focussing on more 'natural' sites such as

canyons and minerogenic mires. As a consequence, our

knowledge about both the distribution and the taxonomy of many 'arable' bryophytes is relatively poor and many species are incompletely or misleadingly described in standard floras. The fact that many of the species are nor

mally found without capsules makes them appear even

less attractive and more difficult to identify using the keys of standard floras. In addition, since the bryophyte as

semblage adapted to bare cultivated soil consists of species that, although often superficially similar, belong to many genera and several families, similar species likely to be con fused are often difficult to locate and compare in standard floras. The present book covering all species likely to be found on bare soil in gardens, cities and in the intensively managed agricultural landscape on the British isles, and in

practice also in most of western and northern Europe, is

thus most welcomed.

The book begins with a short but well written intro duction to mosses, liverworts and hornworts in general and to the ecology,

occurrence and conservation of'arable'

bryophytes in particular. Then follows an 18-page sum

mary table' covering the most important facts about all

86 species treated in the book. There is no ordinary iden tification key, rather this summary table' with the species in alphabetical order and the main characters indicated by different icons, colors and style codes is supposed to lead the user to the correct species. Unfortunately, despite that

the author have obviously put much effort on designing this table, I do doubt that it will be of much use for the

beginner when trying to identify an unknown species -

the number of species covered and the structure of the

table is too complex for that - but it may certainly be of use for the bryologist who 'almost' knows what species he/ she has encountered and thus which taxa and columns in

the table to compare. The main part of the book (90 pp.) is taken up by spe

cies portraits. Forty-seven species are treated in full with

photos of their habit and close-ups on diagnostic charac ters that may be observed through the hand lens, a text

covering both its morphology and ecology/occurrence and a map showing its distribution on the British isles. An additional 39 species are treated somewhat more briefly,

but in most cases with one or more photos, as similar

species'. At the end of each species description there is a text box where similar species are compared and discussed.

In my opinion, these boxes, together with the very repre sentative and illusive photos of almost all species, is the best feature of this book and the main reason why I will

routinely consult it in the future. In many cases, vegetative and field characters of similar species belonging to differ ent genera, or even families, are compared in a way that is

never found in standard floras relying on the microscopic and/or capsule characters that, when present, readily dis

tinguish larger taxonomic groups. Some of the characters

discussed and depicted, e.g. the rhizoidal tubers (gemmae) frequently occurring in most of the species confined to this habitat, are not even mentioned in other floras but

may be very useful for separating species when barren. The taxonomic importance of these tubers in e.g. the Bryum

microerythrocarpum complex has become relatively well known and accepted during the last decades, but the tu bers of many other genera have yet not been utilized as

they deserve.

The second excellent feature of this book is that it de

picts and describes all the species likely to be found in a certain and relatively well defined habitat in a handy for

mat facilitating comparisons and creating

a much needed

overview. Even if I do not appreciate or acknowledge the

usefulness of all the pedagogical inventions in the form of icons and color codes included in the layout, I have found the book easy to use and I have in most cases easily found the information I have been looking for. However, owing to the lack of a normal key-like identification aid and the

complex layout and structure of its contents, I think the book is of greater use for bryologists already knowing ap proximately what species and characters to check, and for

surveyors working intensively and on a daily basis with this particular habitat, than for beginners.

The book is paper back but comes in a sealed plastic envelope and is printed on a relatively thick paper of good quality. Thus, when used as a field guide it will maybe not stand a full day of heavy rain but it may certainly stand

handling with wet and clayey hands for quite some time without becoming irreversibly spoiled.

Torbj rn Tyler

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