Spring ?

Soon I think. In fact I felt a bit of a wimp for postponing the Abergwesyn foray planned for Thursday as I took up a long-standing offer of an introduction to Llangorse from an expert and we had a great day. It was still too early for much recording although plenty of signs of life and "places that looked potentially interesting.

 Selwyn, who took me, was a great guide and I now have met many of the landowners and know some good places to hunt for botanical interest. I did remove a layer in the midday sun but, as I had actually put on one more layer than I ever normally do I suppose I was right that Abergwesyn would have been pretty miserable... At the DoE hatchery I was shown some "probably wild" daffodils and they were - Narcissus pseudonarcissus I am sure (having checked with the very large Stace 3 key).

 

This hatchery is a little way away from the lake and is where Selwyn bred his voles. We saw plenty of signs of these around the lake though and I learnt that a Water Vole will always chop its reed stems (food storage) with a 45 degree cut...

A few days before that I spent some time at Betws-y-Coed on a BSBI Conifer identification course that really was excellent (And the explanation for some new confier pictures on the site.) I really feel I can cope with these now and actually a drive around the roads around Llangorse will yield some conifer records I notice.

Cones at the top of a Monkey Puzzle - a stretch for the lens I had with me but just visible

A new record for the old arboretum we were in - Araucaria araucana is regenerating there (Paul Green spotted it).

Another Reserve

My attempt to visit all Breconshire Reserves has been on hold but I went to Llandefaelog Wood yesterday. As with many of the reserves I have visited in autumn / sinter this was immediately one I put on my "must visit later in the year" list. (Quite soon judging from the Daffodils' state of growth.) The daffodils are billed as native so I will have a go at them before I consult the older records !

I'm always a sucker for Hazel "blossom" so took out the macro equipment for this:

Corylus avellana female flower

I spent most of my time though trying out my "trees in winter" skills after the excellent course in Shrewsbury a couple of weeks back. It certainly helped.

An Easy Flora

Not much to blog about this week (or last) although my trawl through the historical records for Breconshire continues. But my "grate frend*" John Clark had been travelling again and managed to photograph the entire vascular plant flora for a continent:

Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica on the Antarctic Peninsula 13th January 3013

See more pictures of them at the FloralImages recent additions page.

Apt that one is a monocot and the other an (eu-)dicot...

(And also I have some good guest images of Primula Elatior now - thanks to Ken Southall. See Primula Elatior at FloralImages.)

* Readers of Molesworth books will understand. Not sure which of us was Peason.

New Year, New Role

I've always felt my new role as joint recorder for Breconshire would become more "real" in the New Year (although I have been doing a lot of preparation and some recording in the late autumn / winter of 2012). Even the weather seems to be more promising - although ice is forecast for the weekend. (That will teach the various spring plants in my garden a thing or two - many are being very precocious including some just-emerging Oxlip flowers on one of the plants I grew last year.)

Primula elatior, my garden, from seed, struggling this early ...

This week Paul Green (Welsh Officer standing in for Polly) called to reassure me on the role (at least that is how it seemed to me). I had known of Paul and even got help from him and his brother over the web for a long time but we only met for the first time a few months ago. Of course his (and others') Flora of Somerset was a huge help to me starting out late in life to be some sort of botanist based in Weston-super-Mare.
We went up to Henallt Common to see the Blysmus compressus site (only site in Wales ???) and there were discernible last year specimens to see. But we were both delighted to find, visiting the main Circaea x intermedia site (no sign at all as expected) that there was a Colchicum autumnale plant still flowering on the slope. Rather pitiful in the conditions but full marks for sustained effort.

Colchicum autumnale flowering in January at Henallt

This common above Hay is an abundant Colchicum site and it was good to see the evidence of serious Bracken control (thanks CCW) on an open grass slope that I am sure can be seen from our upstairs windows here in Hay. I am hoping one to day to see this pink with Colchicum flowers (not swamped by Bracken) from here.
Paul noted the "flora of De Breos Court" - where we live in Hay. The small paving stones make a good site for one or two interesting plants including a garden escape I was struggling to identify and he was able to name as Malling Toadflax, Chaenorhinum origanifolium. To my shame I later realised that David Fenwick had shown me this near Plymouth a while back.

Malling Toadflax, Chaenorhinum origanifolium

Blysmus compressus at Henallt - in the summer

The Wye at Builth

Just west of Builth Wells the Wye passes through the rather picturesque Pen-ddol Rocks which my Geological Map suggests are glacial deposits (?) - but there are Dolerite formations nearby (in Radnorshire).

It's a popular fishing location apparently and certainly worth exploration botanically in the spring. I did note a Red Oak among the plantations of Larch nearby (leaves I know only too well from clearing my father's garden of them in Oxford).

... and more...

My first sighting of this little alien was on a "quick walk up Pen y Fan":

New Zealand Willowherb

Epilobium brunnescens

Probably spread by walkers' boots I suspect.

And this isn't that uncommon but a recording scramble at Craig y Rhiwarth this year provided the perfect opportunity for a photograph that shows all (?) the Orchid flower "bits".

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Epipactis helleborine

And the local speciality - visible from our window in theory - if you had a good enough telescope...

Meadow Saffron

or Naked ladies

Colchicum autumnale

Brecon gallery

In the absence of even being in Breconshire for most of the last week I am reduced to reporting a few highlights from my existing Breconshire gallery...

Two stars for me are my first ever sightings of the Myriophyllum genus. I found Myriophyllum alternifolium in a lovely clear stream up near the Brecon Beacons Visitor Centre:

Myriophyllum alterniflorum, Alternate Water-milfoil

Nearby was a plant that stumped me for quite a while - a Charophyte - one of the really quite vascular-plant-like ones:

Chara virgata, Delicate Stonewort

The other Myriophyllum was occupying a casual pool in a limestone quarry near the southern Breconshire border:

Myriophyllum spicatum, Spiked Water-milfoil

And, for something completely different...

Nectaroscordum siculum, Honey Garlic

A garden escape but well established and spreading on the old railway line path in Hay.

Winter work

I nearly didn't obey the command from my e-diary to "blog". Haven't been out at botany at all.

But the MapMate patch for Stace 3 finally arrived and was accompanied by useful notes allowing me to double check that my upgrading to Stace 3 was accurate (as possible given my limitations...).

Mostly fine. FloralImages will rightly gain some "sens. lat." designations that most punters will ignore...

And Arenaria serpyllifolia is going to be a nightmare for me going forward (not a favourite family...)

So this is now "sens' lat."

I had trouble enough with the old subspecies - let alone allowing for the possible Arenaria leptoclados in future...

As always anyone who spots a mistake / infelicity on FloralImages and has the time to tell me (politely) will be richly rewarded with my undying gratitude and little else.

I've also back-checked the database for species marked as trees. Interesting that there are some you can set from the family and others you can't (eg rosaceae). So my tree gallery should soon be updated with more "Trees and Shrubs".

Two More Brecon Reserves

I visited Drostre Wood and Coed Dyrysiog* Reserves this week. Both show promise for the spring and Drostre Wood has a very wide mix of tree species. I didn't find any Aspen as promised but have no idea whether to expect that still to be in leaf at all. I must definitely have a good look around in May for a full list. Abundant Yew and Holly though and already it is sad to see so many young Ash whips all ready to fill the many gaps in the canopy. Will they make it ?

Coed Dyrysiog is more spectacular for views and the the lovely sound of the Nant Bran, long before you see it, so steep is the final slope below the path. I must try to get down to the steam side next year !

There was an epidemic of Spangle Galls in one area. Should I have brought one home to hatch ?

Meanwhile I am getting my head around the BSBI DDB and checking Breconshire hectads for record / species numbers - a way to decide which ones to concentrate on first next year. I still haven't decided whether to give them names. "SN86" seems so bureaucratic... I had the Hereford map Centre print me a 1:50000 map of Breconshire VC with the boundary on it. It needed to be printed at 1:56000 to fit it in but it is good to have it all on one map on the wall.

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* Google wants this to be "Dysprosium" - would it were as this is the Achilles heel element of the electric / hybrid car industry (it's used in super powerful motor magnets).

Not much botany this week

But a bracing walk up to Castell Dinas - one of the many places nearby I hadn't got round to yet. I must say this has the best view / achievement etc to effort ratio of any climb around here:

This was part of a U3A "Lost Farms and Villages" walk. We encountered an unusually gnarled and nearly dead Ash - but nothing to do with the latest threat to the tree I think - just a very exposed location. Why did I fail to photograph it though ? 

The Ash disease threat is, of course, very worrying - so at least from the species' point of view it is heartening to read that there are reports of resistant trees emerging in Lithuania. But it looks increasingly likely that the whole of Europe will face a lack of mature Ash trees for many of the next few decades.

Catch up

I finally got round to checking out the Conyza that is in profusion around a neighbour's home in the small cul-de-sac we live in in Hay. It turns out to be Conyza canadensis - I generally don't like the term "weed" but in this case it seems to only way to describe it !

Not so the Sand Spurrey I avoid weed-killing near our house. Both of these frequent pavement cracks and no doubt when Powys get round to it total extermination of all life forms will occur... (Our pavement also has flushes of Saxifraga tridactylites occasionally.) The Sand Spurrey seems unconcerned by trampling and is spreading.

Earlier in the week, Steph Coates (Brecon Wildlife Trust) contacted me about about a field near Talybont with abundant Stachys arvensis. It really is a great display for end of October in a field that is obviously resting from a brassica crop... Sad to think that turning the field to grazing like most around the area would see this gone... In fact I wonder if this sort of annual is more under threat than we realise. I only encountered it for the first time way off the beaten track at Foel y Mwnt last year. (A BSBI meeting naturally.)

Before that taking part in the Hay Walking festival turned up this magnificent Pollarded Oak. That was a friend's walk which I back-stopped. My own walk was pleased to find Naked Ladies still in bloom at Henallt Common !

Back again

OK so it's been another long time...

I intend to visit all Brecon Wildlife Trust Reserves this autumn and started today.

Today I went to Glasbury Cutting - the nearest to where I now live and only 5 years plus to get there. The first thing that shocked me was the evidence of drought - confirming the "rain in summer is useless" argument. It was a very dry winter and the effects were apparent. Particularly in drooping and wilting Hart's-tongue (Asplenium scolopendrium) which I don't think I have ever seen before. Hard to believe there will be be Primroses, Cowslips and "Oxlips" at the far end in the spring - must go back and see. Tsk Tsk to BWT on the Oxlips which I presume will be the False Oxlip (Primula x polyantha)...

The reserve is managed for Dormice but I hope they manage to keep the spring flowers to enhance their environment.

It's also a fun reserve for old railway nuts as you are walking a surprisingly wide old cutting of the Hay / Brecon railway frequented by Kilvert.

Then I went up to Cae Eglwys high above Brecon with stunning views of the Fans and Black mountains. About the limit of my car's capabilities to get up the lane which is surprisingly rough as there is at least one house up there. No doubt they have a 4WD.

Many signs of richness for the spring and summer. Fleabane still flowering. and a nice little dammed stream to investigate. Spearwort was still looking good and I encountered white ones.Close up examination revealed that a yellow layer had been eroded / shed from the surface of the petals; revealing a white layer beneath that presumably accounts for the brightness of the flowers. The flower is still yellow from behind. See my pictures.

Gap

OK so I haven't updated for a while. Doesn't mean I haven't been active botanically - just too busy !

The website now has a new engine for the main pages - bigger pictures and easier browsing of the pictures of any species I hope...

Cwm Idwal

First trip for me and early for most botany. But Purple Saxifrage flowers now and will be over later when this botanist's paradise is in full flow.

It took a while to find the first plant below the Devil's Kitchen - but as usual once the "right type of rock" had been identified, finding more was easy.

There were several interesting lichens there as well which I may or may not have identified correctly. The British Lichen Society multi-access key helps a lot, full marks to them - but I still need to know more about lichens to use it to full effect.

The only slight problem with the photos was that  the biggest ever dust particle was apparent on my sensor when I got back - just a little extra work with Photoshop but definitely the downside of a digital SLR.

And the scenery was magnificent as well, naturally.

Filmy-ferns

A trip to West Cork for family reasons but the challenge to find something new for me was the same as ever.

Glengarriff came up trumps with Wilson's Filmy-fern. I was sure this must be there but found that the Tunbridge Filmy-fern I stumbled upon a few years ago, when I hardly knew what they were, is very much dominant there. (In places the plant is abundant.)

The identifcation is hard as well but, as usual, once I found it I realised straight away that this was "significantly different" - and there is only one other species in the genus in the UK.

They were growing together with Wilson's higher up the tree trunk on which I found them.  To me the longer vein cells were more diagnostic than the vein ends being at the end of the frond - I find that even with a x10 lens the vein ends of the Tunbridge fern are often at the end of the leaf to my eyes.

Llangors

We (the U3A hay Botany group) were invited to explore some botanically rich meadow land near Llangors lake by the Biodiversity Officer for the Brecon Beacons Park Authority. Frankly the botanical riches were a little overwhelming for us but, as the afternoon progressed were able to assist in identifying three good sites for seed harvest (collecting seed for other Brecon Beacons Park meadows) later in the month and identify some of the species at these sites.

A few we found:
Hypericum tetrapterum, Square-stalked St John's Wort
Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged Robin
Anthoxanthum odoratum, Sweet Vernal Grass
Cynosurus cristatus, Dog's Tail Grass
Trifolium dubium, Lesser Trefoil
Trifolium micranthum, Slender Trefoil
Lathyrus pratensis, Meadow Vetchling
Lotus corniculatus, Bird's Foot Trefoil
Leucanthemum vulgare, Oxeye Daisy

Getting lucky

Odd to walk past some Tree Mallow growing near Grove Park in Weston-super-Mare almost every day for several years and never notice it in flower (maybe it takes a while to mature enough to do so...). So when I went back there from the new abode last week it was good to see it in full bloom.

Not to the top

I had to tell more than one exhausted "peak bagger" that actually I wasn't going for the top on Snowdon last week. A good botanical site nestles below the cliffs to the east of the peak and the main path is the way to get there until about the 3/4 point where you turn off.

Nice to get a cup of coffee on the way down though - thanks to the popularity of the main path and the fact that the cafe at the top is currently closed. Also it was good to see the railway (only going 3/4 way at the moment itself) chugging up and down - not such a blight on the landscape as I had imagined it would be. One day I may bag the peak - but that isn't the way for Northern Rockcress, Parsley fern and Roseroot, amongst other new things for the website.

It was good to see Thrift so far from the sea as well.

I was actually hoping to find a very local speciality but it wasn't obliging this year. There is always 2009 !

A great walk and my front garden

Last Saturday was my first BSBI field trip of the year and, as ever, it was great. Emily lead us on a tour of the Dinas Bran area behind Llangollen with breathtaking views, some great botany and knowledgeable company to help me learn more about the subject.

For me the highlight was Changing Forget-me-not. By no means a rarity but probably unknown to most casual walkers. It has minute flowers with the charming characteristic of starting out bright yellow and then changing to a more Forget-me-not blue later.

My "front garden"

Well I don't have one, having opted for a town house, but the pavement outside the front door has already offered a display of Rue-leaved Saxifrage and now (while clearing the asbo weeds) I find a Spergularia - which turns out as expected to be Sand-spurry - Spergularia rubra, after a lot of hand lens searching for (scarce on this one) glandular hairs.

Yellow Whitlow-grass

Some flowers require a special trip. This is one of them - it only grows at all in the UK on the Gower and it flowers in March / early April. So off I went.

I tried three possible sites. The first I drew a blank - probably because I wasn't getting the location quite right - but I cut my losses and tried possibility two. That was bereft, I am sure, of a current population.

But Pennard Castle came up trumps and the display was splendid. So a great deal of (very enjoyable) walking and three separate parking charges paid off in the end. The plant loves to grow in pockets of poor soil in rocks - or in this case crumbling ruin walls.

The view from the castle was stunning as well.

Once again the excursion had me reflecting on the unsatisfactory nature of "bagging" finds. It would be so much better (IMHO) to spend one's life walking the great botanical areas of the country all year round and stumble upon species as if by accident. But it would take more than a lifetime to find it all !

Cilcenni Dingle

It's "one of the most species-rich woodlands in Radnorshire" (Flora of Radnorshire, R Woods) so I had to take a peek.

These Radnorshire dingles are, I am aware, pretty difficult to explore, so I was heartened by the "come on in" attitude of the Woodland Trust on their website - it's access land as well. But it was hard - I had to get out before the top and re-enter on the (easy) footpath through the middle. But well worth it ! Major find was Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage, in some quantity and quite distinctive from its commoner relative growing with it.

Lovely Marsh Marigolds as well.

Trees and other matters

It's not as though nothing has been happening so I should get back to reporting the development of FloralImages !

Outside

The important bit... Well Cwm Byddog was well worth the visit a few weeks ago with Moschatel carpeting areas (I've never seen that before - it's commonish in the Mendips but "local") and other flowers such as Barren Strawberry starting to flower. Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage was also abundant but I couldn't trace the reported Alternate-leaved version.

Trees
The trees though are the major feature of Cwm Byddog and doing them photographic justice is hard. Old pollarded oaks are rare - these are thought to be up to 450 years old.

The old Yews at Cusop churchyard were worth examining, coming off Cusop Hill last week. These are also reputed to be very old.

Inside

The reason for my lack of blogging is partly major "upgrades" to FloralImages. Best not to boringly go through the detail but if it's an improvement than hopefully traffic / user satisfaction will increase ! The introduction of links to get around the various "parts" of plants is perhaps worth mentioning. So, if you land on a particular flower, want to see the leaf shape and I have a suitable photo the link will be there.

Rhos Goch

A magic place that is now "access land" but you need to take great care in visiting. I was fortunate that the warden, Andrew Ferguson, showed me around and pointed out the pitfalls. Now I know where to go (with a companion - it's that sort of place) next year for the flora.

At this time of year it was all ankle deep at least and there were plenty of places to get stuck if not careful. "Rhos Goch" means Red Moor but it is actually a bog (in fact several varieties of bog) that is "intriguing to some and respected by all" in the local community. There are very few places like this left now and it is being managed carefully by the Countryside Council for Wales to preserve its nature and the rare plants that grow there.

Not much to photograph this time (I was busy keeping upright anyway) except for the lovely lichen, Usnea florida on old marker posts.

Oh - and Cowberry - I nearly forgot.

Offa's Dyke

Not the best time for flowers - and not even much in the way of fungi in evidence where I have walked recently - so pictures last week were of Offa's Dyke !

A reserve along an old track

It's not too late yet - and Llandeilo Graban Nature Reserve in Radnorshire will be even more worth visiting next year at peak time. The reserve is along the verge of a road that was part of the railway line from Three Cocks to Llanidloes. Must have been a wonderful railway trip. Amongst the signs of it's past use - the most obvious is that to get onto it you drive under the road and then do a double left to actually get on it.

The cars that use it now don't see anything as they flash past - they are not a danger though - bikes are (but NOT their fault !) as they approach unannounced from behind. The verges / cutting sides provide a variety of habitats and Welsh Stonecrop grows here amongst many other wild flowers. (Of course it wasn't flowering this late.)

Amongst other flowers not recorded by me before was Wavy Bitter-cress.

It's always worth taking the camera

Even is that means an extra load up Pen y Fan.

The highlight (botanically) was finding a rush in full flower - but my preoccupation with catching up the rest of family meant poor details recorded and a difficult identification. (Actually rushes are always a difficult identification for me - but they are very worthwhile plants at the interface between the grasses and more conventional flowers.) Luckily Rodney Burton on the UK Botany Yahoo forum was able to help me.

And all the way up I noticed an unusual flower not quite open - found one open eventually - and it was obviously a Willow-herb on closer examination - turns out to be a New Zealand one that is spreading along paths like this one in the Brecon Beacons.

Tricky genus

After the first walk with no photographs for some time last week at least I found things to investigate and record in Cusop Dingle today.

Mainly Hypericum spp. (the St. John's Worts) - a tricky genus and no easier for finding different species all close together as is often the case for these. At least they have the good manners to flower (a bit) even at this time of year.

But my field guide (Rose), in my hands, is inadequate for these and although I am getting better at recording all the important features for checking in Stace later it still was hard to be totally sure what I found - so several this week have the "uncertain" flag in the database and resultant warning on the site.

Continued up to meet the modern road into the Llanthony valley and came back down that way, finding a Hawkweed on Offa's Dyke path that I think I was able to identify to the section (only amazingly erudite botanists go beyond this for this genus).

The road up from the Dingle is I think the older route and clearly traceable (and a public footpath) up to the modern tarmac road. I think Kilvert will have come up this way as well as on the Welsh side.

Mixed day

"Private woodland - please don't start fires" - great attitude and very botanically rich paths into it. Just a pity they hadn't added to the notice "logging in progress" ! So I had to divert.

But then I got back and my pictures weren't that great. Realised I hadn't photographed Galeopsis tetrahit before (and so should have taken more pictures of it with more care !) and had probably seen G. bifida (a closely related species) as well ! (The carry-able book I take with me in my rucksack doesn't mention G. bifida.)

And my Heath Speedwells in this locality were blue, not lilac as usual. I still think they are that species, after careful checking in Stace when I got back - and the species is "highly variable".

I was partly hoping to get near Kilvert's Graig Pwll Du - not to see the waterfall which I know is regarded as a dangerous exploit these days** but just to see the scenery around. Well I did the latter briefly before diverting from the public footpath because of the logging and a lot of confers have just been cleared from the land above the area - hopefully to be replaced by broad-leaves...

** No doubt Kilvert was in full Victorian gentleman's garb when he climbed down to it with the Mole catcher...

Walking to Clyro

You don't have to walk along the road - the walk over the fields that Kilvert described is still a public right of way and reasonably easy to find. (Not much trodden though - the usual way to see where a path crosses a field from trodden grass doesn't work - at least at this time of year.)

Nice to come across a Welted Thistle at last - it's not particularly rare but eluded me until now. Because it is a tricky identification I took plenty of pictures of the "relevant bits".

And the marshy area by the Clyro Brook was a delight - particularly for the blue of Skullcap all over parts of the area. I must look out for mention of it in Kilvert's Diary - but I wonder was it called Skullcap then in this area ?

Nothing new

A lovely day for a walk along the Wye Valley Walk towards Glasbury.

I didn't actually find any species I had not photographed for FloralImages before but several good examples of some I need better photographs of.

The slight surprise was Marsh Woundwort in what seemed a dryish place. But it was near the Wye and a baby frog did leap out of the undergrowth as I positioned myself !

A disappointment (and worry)

The point of my first meeting with the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust was to find and count Bog Orchids.

So it was a disappointment to hear from the warden at the start that there were very unlikely to be any as they had been stolen.

It's sad that such people are still around (and worrying to hear that this sort of thing is on the increase again). Those, like me, who seek out rare plants to photograph undisturbed are going to have to be careful about revealing locations.

Hopefully some of the bulbils that grow on the leaf edges will have been scattered in the plunder.

But such meetings are never wasted - I would not have been able to identify White beak-sedge without having it pointed out (at least not without hours with a lens and book and some swearing) ! And it is an interesting little "grass" - declining in most places but increasing in the Elan valley.

This was my first encounter with flowering Marsh St-John's Wort as well.

How to pick the wrong day.

I don't let a little rain stop my quest - oh no !

Friday 20th July seemed the day to call in near the Witney bypass for a rare sight (unique to Oxfordshire and possibly declining).

I had family reasons to visit Oxford anyway and the rest of the week had been spoken for.

The rain was relentless even in the morning - I gave up soaked in this botanically rich area soon after getting some tolerable pictures of the Woundwort. Made my family visit in Oxford and set off for home at about 3 pm with my daughter, coming to stay for the weekend.

We eventually got back to Oxford at about 10 pm - which made us some of the lucky ones - many got stuck overnight around Gloucester.

Made it to Hay the next day via the M4 and superior Welsh roads from the new Severn Bridge up through Talgarth - a 50% increase on the usual distance travelled !

Oddly we never encountered rain requiring "fast" wipers. Just several flash floods at the limit of my preparedness to venture. But I heard that after the false lull in the early afternoon many people encountered monsoon rain such as they had never seen before.

Getting there late

This week was far too late for Globeflowers at Cae Pwll y Bo Nature Reserve but I went anyway and enjoyed getting to know the place. Several not uncommon but new to FloralImages species were added. And all was not lost with Globeflowers as I got to see a straggler with all petals lost - exposing the working parts of the flower to view. So my cultivated example still leads the FloralImages resource and it will have to wait for next year to get wild examples.

Vicarage Meadows nearby was also rewarding, if wet, and I saw Dyer's Greenweed for the first time together with some past their best Orchids. Another great reserve clearly but I will have to consider upgrading my walking boots to cope with Welsh wetness. (I'm not complaining - I gather Wilson's Filmy Fern grows in the area and I would not want that to be deprived of its preferred conditions. I must seek it out some day.)

On the (not direct) way back I stopped to investigate some spectacular spikes I noticed on the Brecon - Hereford Road (just after Brecon where there is a turning on the right for T******* 3 m - I can't reconcile my notebook scrawl with anything on the map but the turning is before Felinfach and the Orchids are on the left opposite the turning.

Dashing about after flowers

Fate is conspiring to keep me away from Hay and its environs at the moment - and the weather is not inviting for local foraging in any case - but I do find increasingly that going to known sites to see a rare-ish plant is oddly dissatisfying.

Necessary to some extent to increase FloralImages' scope but getting there to find you are too late / too early / the thing just isn't performing well this year can be a bit deflating.

So a half way house is to try to stop off on other trips that happen to go near. But then you don't really have time to do the job properly.

So actually the real buzz comes in such conditions when you either stumble across something unexpected or a good friend agrees to take you on a tour of his finds. The latter happened on a visit to Plymouth (young son to be visited). David Fenwick (see his site) bustled me around the area allowing me to add 20 more species to the site. I found another five or so, partly by accident as above, on the rest of the trip so it's been quite a productive week. (See them all at this link.)

But I can't wait to spend some days exploring the nature reserves and roadsides of Powys and Herefordshire at a more leisurely pace...

Getting wet

My early forays to explore the local botany seem always to end up focussing on pools.
Exploring The Begwns - a local National Trust open area above Clyro - I soon stumbled upon one and spent the next hour or so getting soaked as I strove for the best angle on the delights around the shore.

Shoreweed doesn't throw up a flower stem unless conditions are right (and then only a male one) so on spotting this I had to get a good picture. It's only when you get up close (and wet !) that you can appreciate that this is a flower of standard construction - just rather differently proportioned from most - and a very unusual Plantain (because that is the family) in having a solitary flower on each stem - hence the Latin name Littorella uniflora. Then I got wetter trying to get a good shot of the female flower lurking at the base of the plant.

...And of course all achieved with minimal disturbance - a principle I try to be true to whatever the problems - I know flower photographers have a bad reputation with some wildlife conservationists.

Not that the sheep who graze the area have such scruples - the Marsh Speedwell was holding on bravely despite them.

Local sites you never quite get round to

Eighteen years in the West country and I never once went to see the "Bath Asparagus" in it's flowering season.

So, now that I live in Wales, I decided that I must make a slight detour from a trip to a meeting in Radstock and see them. Well worth a drive through the lanes south of Bradford on Avon at this time of year. The local name reflects the fact that people used to eat it cooked like Asparagus. Maybe they still do - but if it was really great then wouldn't the TV chefs be using it ?

Reminds me of the reports that "Alexanders" used to be eaten as a vegetable "before the introduction of Celery" (I read somewhere). A correspondent who has tried it told me that, now he has done so, he understands why Celery replaced it !

Oh and I noticed that it (the Bath Asparagus) was still showing in the hedgerows towards but not right up to Radstock going back west - in lanes I have often travelled - but that would have been on the way to the pub...

Nice examples

It isn't all about finding rare and obscure flowers. Getting to know my new locality I soon found some old favourites on the Wye bank plus a really attractive spray of a Water Forget-me-not I have seen before but always in less than ideal conditions. So it's nice to be able to add a picture of which I am somewhat proud of a splendid species.

(What's more it is one that you would expect to find in such a location - unlike the Philadelphus near it - must be a garden escape from the houses nearby.)

Back now I hope

Installed in new house and the boxes emptied - and a lot of botanical opportunities missed during the period...

But some were grabbed - see Sticky Catchfly for instance and Lesser Marshwort found while exploring a botanically rich pool that is now "close to home".

But the tragedy was realising - just a little too late that I now live not at all far from one of the four known stations for Rock Cinquefoil - it had finished flowering when I got there !

It's not just the rarities that matter though - I am already enjoying finding relatively common flowers that were not common (or maybe just not spotted) in my old haunts. See the recent additions list.

Getting going again

Life is fraught - with the consequences of house moving (or rather trying to) but it is important to get out now that spring is springing.

Howard Parsons very gamely offered to take me to a Hutchinsia site he had been to on a field meeting I couldn't make. The forecast was dire but we set out down Nightingale valley and along the Avon river path. You need to be shown this plant - or be one of the eagle eyed and expert botanists that first found it - and with Howard's help we indeed found it again. I would not have spotted it I am sure. This is one flower for which I would blow my own trumpet about the calibrations on FloralImages - you need to know how small and delicate it is !

Then as a bonus we thought we would give Bristol Rockcress a try - despite it being a little early for it - success ! The weather was far better than expected and plants were (just) flowering - in fact I nearly trod on one quite far from the rocks and growing in grass nearby as we arrived at the location.

Then to a BSBI meeting to learn more about conifers - long an interest but also a mystery to me. A great meeting - haphazard in the best way - because there was always more to comment on before resuming the plan. FloralImages now has many more trees in it's collection including the rare in the wild Fitzroya. And an amazing illustration of the fact that Coast Redwoods can regenerate from low down on the trunk / stump - see this !

Searching for the few that flower now

It's hard to find much new for FloralImages at this time of year - but Mezereon is one flower that has eluded me so far and should be flowering soon if not now.

Well I failed in the location I tried yesterday. Plants were there in the 1990s but apparently not now (and the woodland in question seemed very denuded of all undergrowth by deer).

But nearby Green Hellebore was flowering beautifully at one of it's native sites - so all was not lost.

Radnor's own flower

A long wait for anything new and therefore well worth a longish drive to the only UK site for Gagea bohemica in Wales.

Howard Parsons and I set out soon after 8.00 am on the 25th January to meet the warden, Andrew Ferguson at the site, having been told by him earlier in the week that a few flowers were now out. It was invaluable having Andrew there to tell us the background and warn us how to avoid damaging the environment in our enthusiasm.

It turns out that "few flowers" does not mean "few plants" as the vast majority of the plants do not flower. The flower was overlooked by Victorian botanists (probably because they botanized in the months when G. bohemica is not visible at all (even leaves). The leaves, even when they are about, are very thin and insignificant.

It's a species which is able to exploit pockets of thin soil on acidic rocks where the likelihood of dessication in the summer is great. Reproduction is largely by bulbils that tend to form in most plants instead of a flowering stem and there is even doubt whether the plant can set seed. The species also grows in isolated sites in Europe - but with significant variations between the sites. A species for which there is more to learn !

We were lucky enough to visit two flowering locations - one easy with the flowers not fully out (despite waiting an hour for midday sun to coax them) and a perilous (ish) location high up at the reserve with two fully open flowers.

Notes on Gagea

Desktop wallpaper

Or does calling it that make me at least several weeks out-of-date ?

An obvious thing for FloralImages to offer and I took the trouble to look at my stats and find what screen sizes 99.9% of my visitors have. So images are pre-prepared at every build for these sizes (20 in all) and a bit of Javascript ensures that those who try this get the size for their screen.

The image to start with isn't the one I would have chosen - but I decided to make it randomised and so stick with it. The image should change each weeks and sometimes wide-screen users will be offered a different one from that for normal aspect ratio monitors. (Some images are suitable for wide screen, some for 4:3 and some for both.)

Fungi

How did I miss Draycott Sleights for so long ? A superb reserve and a must for next year for flowers.

But now, the reserve and the close-by Draycott Horsegrounds are home to several interesting fungi. I hope I got the IDs about right - I'm learning but still nowhere on the fungus "jizz" recognition curve.

Only realised on return I may have had a Magic mushroom - did I break the law taking a sample for a spore print ?

Back in business

The Camera is back - repaired free of charge by Nikon :-). It was the dreaded BGLOD failure that they are honouring repairs for even out of guarantee. (See the DPreview Nikon forums).

And Malcolm Storey sent a long email of IDs for my Quarantine fungi - plus some corrections for ones I thought I had IDed. Very good of him and FloralImages depends so much on unsolicited help like this.

Spurred me to try hard to get my fungus Iding up to scratch with a new overnight one in the lawn. Brown spore print and I think therefore it is Conocybe tenera.

I will go out tomorrow and find something to photograph if I possibly can !

Camera broke

Only a walk in November at Hestercombe Gardens so not the disaster it could have been. Or seemed ? As with most digital equipment the symptoms at first seemed to preclude any picture taking but further investigation revealed that all that was actually wrong was the metering (causing the display to generate alarmingly random messages / indications).

So I spent the rest of the afternoon exposing by trial and error - easy when you get used to it of course with an on-camera histogram to feed back the results of each attempt - and flowers, as I have said before, stay there for further attempts.

Vice Counties

I believe that one of the problems of a site like FloralImages is that it can be quite hard for users to find what they want. I try to help with this by having several different types of index and also several different browsing pages.

Just added are browse by Vice County pages - Vice Counties are a botanical recording concept - designed to be roughly all similar in size since the mid nineteenth century and unchanged (for consistency) since. I am only dimly aware if I am in North or South Somerset (vice county) much of the time (often erroneously thinking I was in South because I had driven quite a way south from Weston-super-Mare!) and even less sure where Mid Cork starts and West Cork ends. So it has been useful creating this additional categorisation for me.

See the BSBI website for more about Vice Counties and how they are used.

Slime moulds

Patches on the lawn when I wake up recently. What dog has been getting in and weeing ???

No - it's slime moulds. The first to appear was yellow. I think some species of Mucilago. Then two days later the more common (I am told) dark Physarum(s) appear.

Apparently they spend most of the year practically invisible. These are the fruiting bodies.

Porlock

There may not have been much in the way of flowers but a very worthwhile walk. One perfect Indian Balsam flower by the stream and Black Spleenwort up the hill.

The view from above of Porlock shingle bar and the river Horner building up for its spectacular break through (maybe) later this winter made the trip worth it. Plus there were some interesting fungi and little lumps of jelly (lots of it) on the northern hillside which I can only assume is some type of alga.

Oh and Dodder on the gorse at the top.

Silent season

Silly really - I have let this lapse. The solution I am sure is to make it more regular.

A bad year botanically with many trips called off due to ... boring personal reasons. (But death to all estate agents and solicitors - and fickle buyers lower down the chain - plus never accept the advice of a hearty biology professor to wear wellingtons when you know walking boots make more sense - and getting wet feet is preferable to a strained hip - end of rant.)

But the highlight was at the end (of the season proper), thanks entirely to David Fenwick nosing around a local (to him) golf course development - simply the most botanically abundant site he or I have ever seen. See my recent images from Nettle-leaved Goosefoot back to Bugloss - and that's only a half-day's sample of the delights at this site which will be all covered over with clinical grass soon.

David thinks that the demolition waste dumped there for landscaping included the clearance of a defunct bird-garden.

Chasing Orchids

Recently I visited Homefield Wood and Hartsfield Reserve - both near the Thames in Oxon and Bucks. Great displays of nationally rare orchids. Now all on the site.

More recently I have missed further opportunities in Wiltshire - pressure of "events" at home.

But the star accession to floralimages has to come from a guest in the last few weeks. Howard Parsons sought out the very elusive Lesser Twayblade on Exmoor.

Sand point

Always an enjoyable walk. Much still to come but the Honewort (Trinia glauca) was really at its peak and quite a sight.

I still get caught out by the easy ones though. A Sorrel plant caught my eye and I realised I didn't have much in the way of photographs of this; only to find when I got back that it may be subspecies biformis I had found. I should go back when the flowers are more open.

Purbeck Coast

A BSBI meeting at Langton Matravers to explore some of the local coast. Delightful (and knowledgeable) company, Early Spider Orchids and more. I think my highlight was a lone pure white Orchis morio in a field of dark ones.

Chalk Milk-wort was a good thing to get sorted as well. I have twice now got thoroughly confused in the field by misreadings of my Rose and only realised on return that it couldn't have been the Chalk one as it doesn't grow where I was looking ! (I think this is now firmly embedded at last in the ancient brain box).

Nice also to see Rock Sea Spurry on proper cliffs. I know it not a mile from where I sit growing at the edge of tarmac on Weston front ! I was very unsure I had got it right when I first investigated it but then the Bristol Region Atlas confirmed the location.

Completeness

It may not be the most spectacular flower ever but it is another British Isles Family represented - so I had to get the flowers of Sea Buckthorn. The berries later in the year are much more worth the effort - and many vast tracts of the shrub on the coast around here bear neither flowers nor berries - being content presumably to invade the dunes vegetatively.

Spring Squill

A long-held "want" of mine this. Grows on cliff tops around the Southwest Coast but maddeningly not anywhere very near my base. Eventually I settled on a trip to the Gower for it.

Well worth it - carpets of the stuff and magnificent scenery as well. I spent a full days walking around Port Eynon and maybe the species count was small but it was a day well spent.

I am particularly collecting Squills - a bit strange really when it seems the genus is to be split up...

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem

I failed to find this last year - but it turns out I was right time and very nearly right place then. The Somerset Atlas, as always, was a little vague about exactly where this site was and both I and Howard Parsons tried first on the wrong side of the valley in question, only to pass by the actual site exhausted at the end of the day, in my case last year and in his case this.

This year I stumbled upon it straight away - that's the way botanical luck goes - and realised straight away that this must indeed be an often-overlooked flower even in parts of the country where it is more common.

The leaves could be Bluebell until you inspect closely and the flowers are green from above. Also it is not a plentiful flower-er except (reportedly) in special years. This year many seeds had germinated which we both were at pains not to damage. There were signs of cropping by deer (probably) though which is a worry for the site long term.

I have visited twice now - but yet to get the right conditions for a fully open flower - so more images may yet be to come.

Plants in the sea

In my quest to cover as many of the botanical families that grow in the UK / Ireland as I can* I could not pass up an invitation to accompany David Fenwick to see some Eelgrass he found in March.

This grows truly in the sea (very unusually for a vascular plant which is what I am mainly about) and you need a very low tide to see it sensibly and hopefully photograph it, assuming you are not equipped with an underwater camera.

The tide was predicted to be at its lowest for the year when we went to Looe but I soon found that shops had been flooded in the morning - suggesting a tide that had been "pushed up" by the wind. We found the Eelgrass but it never fully uncovered thanks to the brisk southwesterly wind behind the tide but nonetheless I tried out my new "glass-bottomed bucket" for such circumstances - with moderate success and a lot of ideas for improvements in technique next time...

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* Possibly silly this - as I suspect the powers that be are about to recast the families in a big way - see my note at Info: Liliaceae.

A good crocus year

The cold suits crocuses - which don't generally thrive in my garden. This year, though, a Crocus tommasinianus popped up where I had never sown / planted one. Indeed attempts years ago to establish a drift of these elsewhere failed after a few years - but obviously they seeded.

The snowdrops are also great - and the normal rule - 'snowdrops are out so we will get a warm day soon to kill them off' hasn't applied !

Update

I decided to visit Inkpen Crocus Field Reserve near Hungerford yesterday. Crocus vernus has been growing there since 1800, the leaflets say, but it is not thought to be a native.

Rather a long trek but worth it even if a little early this cold year (normally into March is getting late there).

And two others thought alike - including H Parsons, who had made a similar journey to mine and is a FloralImages user. He has been botanising for much longer than I have and is the discoverer of Ophrys apifera var Friburgensis in the Gordano valley. This is featured with his photograph in the Bristol Region Flora.

New technology

Time to update the kit - the new Nikon close up flash kit (R1) looked a better bet than a ring flash so I have taken the plunge. Initial results are encouraging and the kit has enough flexibility to guarantee it will take a while to optimise technique !

I revisited Spurge Laurel to try it out and encountered some interesting old spore-cases on Polypody to try out at 1:1 ratio. Then on the way back I found Butcher's Broom nearer home than before...

A few flowers in the cold

Two natives that grow locally (if rarely) AND flower at this time of year are Butcher's Broom and Spurge Laurel.

I have found both but the Butcher's Broom I have found so far seem to be all the same sex (or the other sex - I think male isn't flowering at present). No berries either makes me suspicious (as others have found them alongside flowers. Could easily be a single-sex clone as it is a component of a hedge. (And hence not truly native...)

The Spurge Laurel was abundant at the edge of Cheddar Wood - but only a few flowers open. So I mst go back in a few weeks for better pictures...

Site adjustments

The quiet season for photographing (British) wild flowers etc so the site has had a makeover. Many new ways to browse the images - a necessity because there are now 750 separate species to see !

It's fungus time

Walks continue but not many (new) flowers to photograph / identify. But the rains have brought out some fascinating fungi. Very hard to identify though. And interestingly the culture of serious mycologists is still very much based on taking it home - something I prefer not to do, leaving them unchanged by my attention.