Pages

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Mainly Geology

My only outing last week was actually one with Hay U3A Geology Group. But we were at Craig y Cilau so there was plenty of botany to see and I even made a few records.

One such record was for this:
Autumn Gentian, Crwynllys yr hydref or Gentianella amarella

Just where we stopped to look at a this geological feature way below us:
Eroded glacial till at Craig y Cilau

The gentian would certainly be expected there - on the tramway in limestone rich grassland below the cliffs - but hasn't actually been officially recorded recently so it was useful to confirm its presence.

Senior Reserve manager, Jon, told me that it "is actually fairly widespread on the limestone but rarely (easily) visible if there are a lot of sheep about - for obvious reasons.  It appears to be more common than was previously thought, largely due to a decrease in sheep numbers over the last few years."

It also occurs at this time of year at Allt Rhongyr BWT reserve and on Gilwern Hill - always on our Limestone band.

We also saw:
Dwarf Thistle, Ysgallen ddigoes or Cirsium acaule

and
Fairy Flax, Llin y tylwyth teg or Linum catharticum

And plenty more that I didn't photograph. This picture was taken a while back but from roughly where we saw the Autumn Gentian:

No comments: