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Monday, May 04, 2015

Talgarth Walking Festival

Having agreed to lead a walk up from Talgarth to Trewalkin Meadow Nature Reserve for the festival we set out to do some route checking (and plant recording) earlier in the week.

On the old railway line near Talgarth (private land with special access permission for the Festival) we found a large patch of Goldilocks Buttercup, an annual with a distinctive stance and, usually, rather imperfect flowers with missing petals. These however were mostly well-formed - clearly a superior Brecknockshire form!
Goldilocks Buttercup, Blodyn-ymenyn peneuraid or Ranunculus auricomus

There was plenty of native Yellow Archangel and also some of this garden form in the area:
Yellow Archangel (Garden form), Marddanhadlen felen or Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum
The main difference of this form is the leaves with silvery-white blotches.

When exploring the railway line some of us took the old Tramway route, others the old railway and the two intrepid members of the group the high ground in between at this point:

Up at the reserve on the day of the walk it was early for many things like Greater Burnet (although we found one plant starting to send up flowering spikes). But Water Avens (and its hybrid with Wood Avens) was already abundant - and reminded us that we were lucky to be able to get around so easily and even picnic in what is normally a very wet place.
Water Avens, Mapgoll glan y dwr or Geum rivale

In the wooded area there was Wood Spurge as well as a ground carpet of Sanicle, Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage and more. There was even one just-starting-to-flower Early Purple Orchid, spotted by Bev from the Wildlife Trust.
Wood Spurge, Llaethlys y coed or Euphorbia amygdaloides

Picnicking in Trewalkin meadow isn't always this easy!

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