Mission accomplished

There are still useful botanical searches to do at this time of year, as I explained to the landowner when asking permission to go on his land (he wondered why I wasn't interested in his Hay meadow orchids - which I will be next summer).

Our target, Rough Horsetail, is wintergreen and a Rare Plant Register plant for the county. It was last seen at this site in 1992; we have a new site discovered in 2017 below Pen y Fan. There is one more potential site for re-finding it - last seen there in 1985.

It was a lovely day for a walk up Cusop Dingle, just the other side of the Welsh Border, for the walk up to the farm entrance, which immediately crosses the Dulas Brook and thus got us back into Wales.

We enjoyed discussing and recognising some of the varied leaves on the banks alongside the farm track - plenty more to record when we return in the summer! The woodland around a tributary of the Dulas was easy to access and not too bad to get through. We found what we were looking for after a few hundred yards of roughish woodland dingle walk along the stream:

Our new BSBI Welsh Officer, Barbara, photographing the Rough Horsetail after crossing the stream to see it closer. We soon found other clumps on the side we had started on.

This picture of the Dulas Brook in Cusop Dingle was taken some time go:

It was nice to see this flowering in November under the trees.

Wild Angelica, Llysiau’r angel or Angelica sylvestris

And here is the target plant:

Rough Horsetail, Marchrawnen y gaeaf or Equisetum hyemale

We returned via Offa's Dyke Path and noted more Hawthorns on that route with mistletoe than I had seen before.

A great day out

It's not too late to be recording botany at all as we proved on the last day of October.

Joan views a Brecon Mountain Railway train with the Brecon Beacons to the left. (Picture by Sue)

The walk up to the common had been rewarding - here is another view of Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn.

And the Mountain Railway Train again!

The botany was good as well with a fairly long list for the time of year.

A couple of highlights:

Parsley-piert, Troed y dryw or Aphanes arvensis

Common Whitlowgrass (probably), Llysiau’r-bystwn ar or Erophila verna agg.

None of us photographed this - but we did see it in flower:

Mouse-ear-hawkweed, Clust y llygoden or Pilosella officinarum (Was known as Hieracium pilosella)

Always a welcome sight.

But it was cold a lot of the time (new wooly hat)

Sue's picture again

Recent Highlights

I've been slow to update this recently so here is a mainly pictorial summary of the highlights from the last few months.

Wild Angelica, Llysiau’r angel or Angelica sylvestris from a wet woodland near Brecon.

Good hunting on the Epynt finding many plants not seen elsewhere in the 10km square.

Including this spotted very late in the season by Steph:

Flea Sedge or Carex pulicaris

And who knew what gems lay in wait alongside the apparently featureless road from the Beacons reservoir towards Penderyn. We need to explore in the middle of the year in future years.

Mossy Saxifrage and Hawkweeds on a ledge in an abandoned limestone quarry.

With great views as well...

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Creeping Willow, Corhelygen or Salix repens high up above Aber flowering "out of time".

My break in Ireland

Sika Deer - common near Glengarriff in West Cork I am told (but still rarely seen).

Western Gorse, Eithinen fân or Ulex gallii which is common with us but seems to have much finer needles in West Cork.

And of course

Fuchsia, Ffiwsia or Fuchsia magellanica adorning the West Cork hedgerows.

Variegated Chestnut

I'm assuming this is a variety of Sweet Chestnut, Castanwydden bêr or Castanea sativa. In any case the warden we spoke to at the John F Kennedy Arboretum was very proud of this tree and wanted us especially to seek it out. The collection there is magnificent and this is very worthwhile place to visit in County Wexford. We have passed by for over 40 years! We also saw a Red Squirrel there.

Hotter and hotter

The hot weather had started when we went to waterfall country so thankfully we had some cover a lot of the time from trees and occasionally got near enough the waterfalls to feel their cooling effect. A good and varied list was obtained. Cow-wheat perhaps being a highlight in the woodland:

Common Cow-wheat, Gliniogai or Melampyrum pratense

And we found this one Helleborine - unfortunately snapped off before flowering...

Broad-leaved Helleborine, Y galdrist lydanddail or Epipactis helleborine

And the Sgwd Clun-gwyn waterfall had an out of reach display of, we thought, Mimulus...

Our BSBI Field meeting (recording) was held on a very hot Saturday and a very good list was gathered by the experts for an area not recorded at all recently.

This included a fern I am yet to be adept at spotting. The field where we saw this had plenty though and I think I now have it for the future. This location was disappointing for richness but luckily the second site we had selected for the afternoon made up for that.

Narrow Buckler-fern, Marchredynen gul or Dryopteris carthusiana

We even saw this county rarity on the way up to the farm we were targeting:

Sheep's-bit, Clefryn or Jasione montana

And the next Tuesday saw us at a normally extremely wet location on the Epynt where the Cilieni river rises.

Conditions were perfect for this exploration with only minor squelchiness underfoot most of the way.

Examining Marsh fern - a Brecknock rarity.

Marsh Fern, Rhedynen y gors or Thelypteris palustris 

And we all agreed the more rare member of the, ubiquitous in Brecknock, Cotton-grass genus was the most well-groomed and classy one.

Broad-leaved Cottongrass, Plu’r gweunydd llydanddail or Eriophorum latifolium

Then a few days later two of us explored a lane or two in an under recorded area near Llanwrtyd Wells, finding this on a Heart of Wales railway line bridge

Pale Toadflax, Llin-y-llyffant gwelw or Linaria repens 

We found a few surprising casuals to add to the list near this very deep ford on the river Irfon. The road is a public road but with warnings. There must be times when the ford is impassable to all but the biggest all-terrain vehicles.

In the afternoon we explored a little of a high common nearby - which turned out to be incredibly  dry with only a little dampness at the bottom of obviously normally wet gullies. But Skullcap was bravely completing its mission nonetheless.

Lesser Skullcap, Cycyllog bach or Scutellaria minor 

And it wasn't the ideal conditions for exploring an area of very early mining activity on the south of Llangattock Mountain for the next outing.

This is where the second lowest seam of the South Wales coalfield outcropped on the plateau and the scene of early coal extraction. The remaining cliff supported a lush community that obviously still had access to moisture unlike the spoil tips nearby. (Bilberry, Heather and not a lot else though.)

Botanising a dry industrial heritage landscape

But there were compensations such as:

Small Cudweed, Edafeddog fach or Filago minima

And nearer the cars a big surprise - Bell Heather has not been seen in the area for a very long time. In fact there is an almost Brecknock-shaped hole in its distribution map.

Bell Heather, Grug y mêl or Erica cinerea

Sue and Keith, not out with the botany group, managed another find that is a first for the 10km square where found:

Sand Spurrey, Troellig arfor coch or Spergularia rubra

And, most recently, Steph and I spent a day with Ray Woods near where he lives with the excellent result that he was able to lead us straight to the richest areas and another very long list was obtained (again for an area not recently recorded). The definite highlight was a very large population of...

Ivy-leaved Bellflower, Clychlys dail eiddew or Wahlenbergia hederacea

… and quite a lot of it was this pure white form:

Just visible in the Sphagnum - blue form again.

Just one of the many other choice plants we encountered.

Round-leaved Sundew, Gwlithlys or Drosera rotundifolia 

(Note that the top right leaf has a catch...)

(Collecting Callitriche brutia)

Thanks for these, Anne, (I think!)

Photographing Small Cudweed