We explored along Sarn Helen starting from Coelbren to get some records from unrecorded areas. The views were also rewarding as we approached the Nedd valley.
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
A few updates
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
A picture gallery
I wasn't around for a large part of the recent work so here is a gallery of finds since the last blog.
Thursday, August 01, 2024
Searching and (sometimes) finding
Very briefly - we have been busy and mainly looking for rarities...
We didn't find Annual Knawel, recorded previously on the road up past Little Hill but we think we found the botanically rich area where it used to be. There was an abundance of Slender Parsley-piert though - mainly like the example below and a very few with flowers.
Later in Coelbren we were looking for Samolus valerandii - now twice recorded near our border there. We didn't find it but did get a long list of good things and a better idea of where to continue the search.
On a BIS Recording Day near Hay, Claire found Intermediate Enchanter's Nightshade near the Dulas Brook.
I didn't get below the top outcrop - but the younger ones did get to lower and steeper crags.
Ben and Steph on the more accessible crags
Stopping to let a car pass on the narrow road back resulted in my spotting this from the passenger seat.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Finding rare plants
(Rare for our county that is.)
I have been away for much of the time since the last post but that didn't stop the intrepid Brecknock Botany Group members going out and finding things.
Some notable finds:
Chrysosplenium alternifolium (Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage)
Lathraea squamaria (Toothwort)
and Wahlenbergia hederacea (Ivy-leaved Bellflower) all near Erwood by Anne Griffiths
Sunday, June 02, 2024
Mid Year Catch Up
We have encountered Buck's-horn Plantain twice in the last few weeks, which rather contradicts the Stace distribution information: "mostly near sea ... inland in scattered lowland places mainly in England".
The first was at 260m near the Caban Coch Dam above the Elan Valley Centre.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Pillwort to Nonea
We continue to have a botanically eventful start to the year.
Just after the last post several of us met up near Twyn y Beddau under Hay Bluff. I expected to easily show the group the Pillwort that grows up there but that wasn't how it turned out as the pools were very full due to recent rain and not a sign to be seen in most of them of the rare little fern in the water or at the edges. But we did find it at the last pool we looked in which had been thoroughly trampled by horses or cattle, churning up some floating examples:
Friday, March 22, 2024
Some early botany
Several of us visited the Hutchinsia at Craig y Cilau on Wednesday. I like this picture because the Rue-leaved Saxifrage nearby, a small plant itself, gives a sense of the tininess of the Hutchinsia on the right.
The team are out recording again with, for instance, four monad 20 year updates for Moschatel (or better - one monad was new).
See our current challenges here.
Tess has found Tuberous Comfrey straying from a garden into the wild for only the third county record.