Miscellany

On Wednesday we explored an A40 road verge on the way to a side road we wanted to record along. Plenty of nice things are on the way for the A40 near Bwlch including Meadow Cranesbill. 

The side road was very interesting and we met the landowner who was very helpful. He had known Mike Porter and also knew what we were probably looking for! We found it exactly where he suggested - with plenty more a little further into the woodland - he had been a little concerned it might be affected by a recent thoughtless dumping of road sweepings.

Here is is:

Paris quadrifolia, Herb-paris near a woodland stream

We saw over 50 plants. Other notable species included:

Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Yellow Archangel draped by Melica uniflora, Wood Melick

(We did see fully flowering Archangel - but I like the combination above!)

And in the lane we saw a lot of Ulmus glabra fruits - coming from this tree - the largest I have seen in the county.

Ulmus glabra, Wych Elm, just coming into leaf.

Elsewhere, Stephen found this at Aberedw Rocks (in neighboring Radnorshire) - a reminder that is doesn't just grow on stream sides.

Saxifraga granulata, Meadow Saxifrage, S Marshall

And in Hay:

Allium triquetrum, Three-cornered Garlic looking well-behaved to me on Forest Road verge.

And in my garden:

Rhodiola rosea, Roseroot, sourced from a West Cork garden

Aegonychon purpureocaeruleum, Purple Gromwell, sourced from a Cheddar garden

Both of the garden plants above I suspect came from the wild to the gardens they were in. Cheddar gardeners apparently regard the Gromwell as a nuisance as it spreads rapidly. It is a joy to behold in Cheddar Wood.

We don't often record Dandelions

Properly I mean. We record "Taraxacum agg." (translation - "it's a Dandelion") almost every time we go out once they are in season. 

But there are 400 or so species of Dandelion we could be recording and there are very few expert "Taraxologists" who can do this. 

Mike Porter was such an expert and he reported 159 for the county in the new Flora of Brecknockshire. 

One species that he suggested I might try to refind is called Taraxacum luteum, the "Pure Yellow Dandelion". "Pure yellow" because the ligules (petals to most people) are not dark on the back - they are pure yellow front and back. 

So the group tried again to find one of these at a known site near Llangorse Lake yesterday. (Again because we had a go last year but were really too early to find many at all.)

A lot of Dandelion heads had to be turned over to examine the back before Lizzie was the first to exclaim "I think I have found one".

Taraxacum luteum, Pure Yellow Dandelion

Here is a picture of the back of the flower...

The reported "luminous yellow" appearance didn't seem to help - maybe because it was very sunny and almost all the Dandelions we saw seemed equally yellow - but these were also yellow on the back. Eventually someone found another one after quite a lot more searching then two came almost at once and the last 12 of the fifteen we found came along quite quickly - you do get your eye in.

A good day in all, with Lesser Water-parsnip found in the wet woodland in a new area. 

Berula erecta, Lesser Water-parsnip near Llangorse in 2021

Flora Launch

Last week we launched the book in style, thanks to Tim Rich and Rebecca Price the organisers. I talked briefly to a capacity crowd (over 50) at the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Visitor Centre but the book mainly spoke for itself. Two of Mike's sons and his wife were there with us.

Books are available now at: Summerfield Books

A Walk along the Wye from Builth Wells

 In 2013 I photographed this Black-poplar on the Wye bank east of Builth.

Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia, Black-poplar

These magnificent trees have long been in the county and are considered to be native in England but are probably introductions in Breconshire where they may have been planted to provide timber. Most trees in the county are males, making natural reproduction difficult...

We visited it again as a botany group yesterday only to find it sadly changed:

The tree-surgery may well have been advisable - to prevent it falling under its own weight into the river - and it is clearly responding vigorously to the treatment ! We noticed that the trunk is very hollow at the bottom...

Just to prove it clearly is the same tree here it is in 2013 before coming into leaf:

The tree was first recorded in in 1996 and was identified as the native subspecies in 2005 by Mike Porter. The first picture above is featured in Mike's Flora of the county.

The Flora of Brecknockshire

Why "Brecknockshire"?

It covers more places than the current ceremonial county of Breconshire and Mike Porter wanted this title. 

The County used for wildlife recording purposes is quite a lot larger than the current Powys southern limits allow and is the same as the area designated by Hewett Cottrell Watson in 1852. He had not heard that Glasbury had not long ago been made part of Breconshire - so we still leave that area to the Radnorshire recorders.

In the early part of the 20th century the name Brecknockshire became popular for the area.

Here is the leaflet promoting the book:

New Year - new start. The Brecknockshire New Year Plant Hunt

This blog has been resting while I (and members of the group) worked on completing the Flora of the County which will be published in the spring. Sadly Mike Porter, who wrote almost all of it, did not live to see it fully published. Mike was County Recorder for Botany from 1968 until last year so this Flora will be the end result of a lifetime's work.

We (the Brecknock Botany Group) intended to do a group hunt for the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt scheme at Trecastle but weather warnings (a little OTT as it turned out) decided us to do several small local hunts - including one in which two of us did brave it to Trecastle.

In all 65 wild growing plants were found flowering in the county with the highest tally being at Llangynidr by Anne and Joan. (26)

A few pictures:

Arabidopsis thaliana, Thale Cress at Trecastle, Claire Halpin

Several of us found Daisies flowering (Bellis perennis). This from Hay Graveyard by me.

Chaenorhinum origanifolium, Malling Toadflax thrives all year round near my house - not intervention from me at all and has been there since 2013 when it presumably escaped from a window box. Now naturalized in pavement cracks.

Lamium purpureum, Red Dead-nettle is a more recent arrival in the same habitat. Now well established.

Several of us found this grass which grows everywhere and "flowers" all year round. Poa annua, Annual Meadow-grass.

A Good Week

We explored a practically unrecorded tetrad on the Black Mountain last week. The route from where we parked had a lot of good things that could not be completely ignored so it took us until 1230 to enter the area of interest. 

This shows where most of us explored - the river (Afon Gwys) providing the most interest.

Meanwhile intrepid Stephen descended into the steep Afon Giedd valley to explore places like this:

Afon Giedd entering its gorge.

A good haul of records was obtained and both common Cotton-grasses were seen with Hare's-tail Cotton-grass being the most abundant:

Hare's-tail Cottongrass near the Afon Gwys Fawr

Then I heard that Hairy Greenweed (Genista pilosa) was flowering at Ogof Ffynnon Ddu on the limestone pavement. This seems to be a rare occurrence so three of us went there on Friday to check it out. The species is quite rare in the UK with relatively strong populations in Cornwall and Pembrokeshire and only a few other isolated sites in the whole country. (Cadair Idris hosts it also in Wales.) So our population is quite important. We found five patches in all growing and flowering strongly.

Hairy Greenweed (Genista pilosa)