Llangors Lake (Llyn Syfaddon)

It was the largest lake in Wales before Lake Bala's level being raised by Thomas Telford so we could not hope to cover the whole shoreline on Thursday but we did get to explore a restricted area, thanks to permission from the Brecon Beacons Park Authority.

This proved to be well worth doing as we found one new species for the county and re-found several that are not often seen.

It was also our best turnout this year (a joint meeting with BWT and my recording group) so we split into two groups each with a really good botanist as Paul Green and Mike Porter were both with us.

In all we found 220 different species and made 333 records. We were treated to a great show of the Knotweed family with five species of Persicaria all in close association and including Persicaria mitis, or Tasteless Water-pepper* Persicaria minor, Small Water-pepper which has not been seen there since 1975. It was Paul who spotted this and the rest of us then were able to find more plants once we "had our eye in". I am doubtful we would have spotted this otherwise (Mike was in the other group !). Heather confirmed for us that is was indeed tasteless.

Persicaria minor, Small Water-pepper

Again, Persicaria minor, Small Water-pepper

Here are some of the others:

Redshank, Persicaria maculosa

Water-pepper, Persicaria hydropiper

Another good find was Needle Spike Rush, Eleocharis acicularis:

Among other highlights were finding five different Duckweeds (aided by Paul's expertise):

Lemna gibba, Fat Duckweed
Lemna minuta, Least Duckweed
Lemna trisulca, Ivy-leaved Duckweed
Lemna turionifera, Red Duckweed and
Spirodela polyrhiza, Greater Duckweed

Lemna gibba, Fat Duckweed (not taken on Thursday)

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* Yes there was a blunder in the original identification. Anyone who cares to ask can have the gory details - it wasn't typical P. minor but then it wasn't P. mitis either.