A wet and windy weekend

... and firm commitments made to be outdoors botanising ! (Click here for earlier in the week)

Saturday saw the Brecon Wildlife Trust Circular walk to Darren Fawr start from Merthyr Golf Course car park for a walk through very varied and interesting terrain. (The walk was in partnership with the Brecon Beacons Park Society. .) Eight of us were brave enough to start out and condition were not too bad until after lunch but very windy and wet conditions prevented us doing a good exploration of the Darren fawr reserve (being gustily blown onto the slope isn't much better than the opposite). But the woodland along the Taf Fechan was well worth the effort with abundant Water Avens and its hybrid with Wood Avens:

Geum rivale / urbanum hybrid - both parents were nearby.

I managed to record fairly comprehensively for the first 1km square - much helped by others in the group - but we fell behind the schedule for time and so I was relieved to just enjoy the walk after that as we picked up speed.

Lunch on an old trackway on the common.

Then on Sunday I went to a BSBI meeting just over our northern border into Radnorshire at Elan where we saw some lovely meadows abundant with Vicia orobus before deciding to move indoors to chat as the weather deteriorated. 

Vicia orobus, Wood Bitter-vetch

Then later Ray Woods was able to show us a meadow with many gems near Newbridge on Wye (again on the Radnor side).

More Adder's tongue than I have ever seen in one place before !

Genista anglica, Petty Whin

Postscript, seen at Hereford on the 19th June:

Picture taken at dusk on my phone: River Water-crowfoot?

Back in Brecknockshire

I've been to the BSBI AGM at Beaumaris so didn't update this blog last week but am now back and recording in Brecknockshire.

On Tuesday I met Sue on her RVNR (Roadside Verge Nature Reserve - there are still reserves looking for volunteers to monitor them !) to see the population of Carex divulsa subspecies divulsa:

It's not a species I am familiar with and if, like me, you are familiar with Carex remota (Remote sedge) in woodland then this is very similar - except for the lack (almost entirely) of bracts (leaves to you and me) just below the spikes.

Remote Sedge

There is also one patch of Long-stalked Cranesbill in this reserve which was looking good:

The long stalk is the pedicel of the flower. This is a rare case where the common name is actually helpful !

Then on Thursday I had signalled in my email that I wouldn't be doing anything ambitious and the weather forecast for the day got steadily worse as it approached. But Joan joined me for the least worst part of the day as advertised by the Met Office and actually we had no rain at Llandefalle. We did get wet though in the churchyard undergrowth and were rewarded by confirmation of the "rare for Brecon" Dwarf  Elder. Not yet in flower but easy to spot once you knew what to look for. Helpfully the locality provided both Ground-elder and Elder to compare !

Sambucus ebulus, Dwarf Elder

We also found some Monkshood (almost certainly a garden escape but well established in woodland).

Aconitum napellus, Monkshood

To see other species I encountered in Anglesey go to my website - recent changes page.

Searching high and low

A good week of ideal botanical weather. For the walk at Darren Fawr Steph and I were joined by Paul Green (BSBI Welsh officer) and Mike Porter for what turned out to be a very enjoyable walk and also a great educational day for the two less-experienced of us. So many more records were noted by me for two one kilometre squares than would otherwise have been.

An example was a patch of Trifolium micranthum (Slender Trefoil) spotted by Paul - who was able to point out the rather deeper yellow colour compared to the common Lesser Trefoil and the small notches on the standard of the flower.

(This picture of Slender Trefoil wasn't taken last week...)

We were hoping to see some of the rare Whitebeams up there but missed those - however we did find the one site in Breconshire for Rigid Buckler-fern, Dryopteris submontana, a close relative of the woodland Male-fern.

Paul Green with Dryopteris submontana

This fern is covered with tiny glands on both leaf surfaces

Then yesterday I visited a very wet meadow in the Ewood area where one of my recording group has found Globeflowers and other interesting plants such as American Skunk-cabbage, Lysichiton americanus:

Not from yesterday as it was past flowering

Globeflowers near Erwood

Much of this meadow was dominated by Oenanthe crocata, Hemlock Water-dropwort which must make quite a sight when it comes into flower. I've never seen so much in one place.

Hemlock Water-dropwort in Somerset

Earlier in the week I was on a much needed grass identification course courtesy of BIS. A very valuable two days for me with excellent instruction from Sarah Watson-Jones. While looking at meadow grasses in Craig-y-nos country park we encountered this Marsh-orchid:

"Mixed Tussocky Moorland, Alder Carr Woodland and Meadows"

Well the full "promise" from Steph and myself was "We will walk up through some mixed tussocky moorland, Alder Carr woodland and meadows before returning on the footpath from Nant y Beudy".

In the end we couldn't quite achieve this - being frustrated by a new deer fence of which we were unaware. The going was hard, we had to turn back eventually and go by car to the final meadow but boy was it worth it !

The prettiest of the Horsetails, Equisetum sylvaticum, abundant near Crai

The estate had been assessed by Steph in 2007 and was well worth a return visit (with permission of course - this is private land). The difficult going is partly due to grazing by cattle and the wet local climate but it made for interesting botany and quite some challenges for us to identify things not as far advanced as would have hoped.
An example would be the Lousewort we encountered that appeared to have the diagnostic "second pair of lateral teeth" on the flowers to make it Marsh Lousewort but proved on further examination to be the common species. Only to encounter rosettes we are fairly sure are of the Marsh species later on:

Marsh Lousewort - yet to flower

In all we managed to record about 80 species we could identify with certainty - a rich area.
But then the deer fence problem thwarted us and we elected to retrace our steps and use the car to get to Steph's meadow from 2007 with "some" Globeflower. My expectation of "some Globeflower", based on experience (with the honourable exception of speciality reserves like Cae Pwll y Bo) is not  for what we found:

Globeflowers near Crai

Our conservative count of plants gave a figure of at least 110. So all in all an exhausting but rewarding day for me and I hope for my companions.

Talybont reservoir and Brechfa

There were several of us at the far end of the reservoir for this botanical exploration and it was a great environment to spend a day in.

Once again - many eyes made for more records; we all learnt stuff we didn't know before and made a contribution to the development of this area as a local nature reserve.

I brushed up on my Sedges with a few I couldn't identify straight away such as Carex disticha, Brown Sedge.

This was Greater Tussock-sedge, Carex paniculata

Then on Thursday I met Phil Sutton of Brecon Wildlife Trust at Brechfa Pool for the setting up of a small cage for an experiment with restricting grazing on one of the rarer plants there. 

The damp grass around the pool was peppered with Blinks in flower - a delightful sight of an overlooked little plant.

Montia fontana subsp. chondrosperma (Blinks)

A verge and a wood

I joined Steph Coates and several of our (Brecon Botanical Recording) number on Wednesday to take a first (?) look at a RVNR high up above Llangors lake. These Brecon road verges can be very botanically diverse and rewarding to explore and this was no exception.

The most unexpected find was "Hidcote Comfrey" well-established in the wild:

But we also saw good populations of Common Dog-violet, Cowslips, Moschatel and much more. (More than 70 species).

Goldilocks buttercup was found as expected on the lower verge - it seems to be a good spring for this species, which I gather from Stace is like the Dandelions in reproducing asexually and, on the continent botanist have over 100 micro-species to determine (if they wish). No wonder Nigel Farage wants us out of Europe !

Goldilocks, Ranunculus auricomus, the upper leaves are characteristic and many flowers are imperfect in most populations - with a petal or more missing.

I also came across a good crop of Goldilocks on the path up the Login brook to Hay common the next day. I've passed there many times at different times of year and never noticed it before. It was in bud and just about to flower then so now is the time to go if you want to see this. It's only just past the graveyard where you go into the Login cwm.

I was on my way to Rook wood and this route looked promising. There were some lovely views.

This path brought me to the top end of the wood so I was able to record the marginal trees as I walked along the fence. It turns out there is no proper entrance though until you come well down the far side so it's not the ideal route to the wood as it turns out. I spent a good time in the wood, not finding anything very special but seeing many good woodland species and noting that there is a fair population of tall Wild Cherry tress all through the wood from the flowers strewn below.

Wild Cherry, Prunus avium - it's only "Bird Cherry" in Latin !

It was also good to sit next to a very fresh Arum flower and listen to and observe all the trapped insects inside:

The bluebells here were probably about a week before their best - and already very impressive.

Limestone pavement - mainly

My education about the landscape of Brecon continues - in the sense of actually seeing what I vaguely knew about in this case.

Conditions looked rather better than forecast when Joan and I set out from Penwyllt to go into the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu National Nature reserve. (This was to change but a good start.)

Green spleenwort

We got to an enclosed area of limestone pavement and did find Convallaria majalis as well as plentiful Geranium lucidum (uncertain at first because I was unused to such lush growth as we saw). Little was flowering yet though (apart from Carex flacca, Wood Anemones, Dog's Mercury  and Cowslips) and its definitely a place to go later in the year (and explore a wider area). We were too soon encouraged to make our way down again though by descending cloud that would have made straying off the paths (old tramways) unwise in any case.

Lily of the Valley in an unexpected habitat

I had intended to go further to a site for Antennaria dioica - that will have to wait - but realised when I got back that it should have been around near where we were - either we missed it or no flowering spikes yet - it may even be that some vegetative growth I surmised to be Mouse-ear Hawkweed was in fact the Antennaria? (My off-season vegetative skills have a little way to go but studying Poland - Vegetative key after excursions is helping me here.)

Antennaria dioica in the Burren

And I nearly forgot - Joan found a plentiful population of Saxifraga hypnoides when we were slightly off the main path (finding our way) soon after we set off.

Builth, Cwmdu and Gilfach

It took a few minutes for me to realise what I had encountered here on the Brecon bank of the Wye at Builth Wells on Monday:

But Black Poplar emerged as the answer eventually. I reasoned from the available evidence that this is a true native Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia so it was encouraging to find that Mike Porter has already determined it as such !

A grand tree anyway:

Then Sue and Joan came along to Paramor orchard near Cwmdu to explore the habitat and we were rewarded with a sight of the two "Dog-violets" both flowering in the copse.

A topical lesson then

Viola riviniana, Common Dog-violet with lighter spur (and notched) and just visible behind, substantial "sepal appendages" as Stace has it. (That is bits of sepal growing backwards - does that help?).

And Viola Reichenbachiana, Early Dog-violet with a darker spur (still a little notched - that isn't a very reliable character ?) and minimal "sepal appendages".

Hope that helps !

And yesterday I was at Gilfach for a joint Radnor / Brecon Roadside Verge scheme day. A great location in great weather and, thanks to the recent weather plenty of rather young conundrums to determine around the site.

Pwll y Wrach and Butterbur

Four of us explored this excellent Brecon Wildlife Trust Reserve. (Click here for the BWT page)

It couldn't have been a better day really - many many thanks to my companions, Joan, Wendy and Dainis for the good company, encouragement and above all the great spotting.

The newly acquired south bank side of the Ennig was a delight with carpets of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage:

as well as substantial populations of its less common relative, Alternate-...

and contrasting carpets of Wood Anemone 

as well as Wild Garlic (not yet in flower).

Toothwort was so abundant to be considered a bit of a yawn by the end of our walk (well not really...)

So all in all it's a great place to be right at the moment. A word of warning though. Access to the other side of the Ennig is dependent on fordability of the river and not to be advised without suitable footwear in suitable weather conditions.

Earlier in the week I had to park up and investigate a population of Butterbur spotted near the Llanfaes A40 roundabout near Brecon. I thought I would like to see if there were any female plants (unlikely according to the books but an indicator of native status if found). You might think from this picture that I did (I certainly was encouraged at the site).

But no - I gather from reading several books that these will be "male" capitulae with sterile stigmas ! It's worth checking for plants, if you see this, with smaller flower heads and slender stigmas (at least that's implied by pictures I've seen in some books). But this isn't very likely here in south Wales. To cap it all Clapham Tutin and Warburg says that "only the sterile florets secrete nectar" - what is this plant trying to achieve ? (OK the answer is certainly the passing on of it's selfish genes - but in a subtle way no doubt.)

Lastly, I got this translation service from Twitter - Floralimages in Gangsta.

Mundane but good

I was joined by Steph from Brecon Wildlife Trust for my trip to Cwm Claister above Llangynidr. We postponed starting until the early afternoon, after studying weather forecasts; and I arrived at the parking palace in glorious sun - only to be soaked as I tied up my boots.

But we set off nonetheless, recording as we went into the valley and trying not to get record cards too wet. The sun did return and stayed for the rest of the day so a good day was had with over 100 records in three squares - that may not be record-breaking but satisfying for botanists who struggle a bit with what were still very early signs of spring !

The valley is a lovely spot with old lost trackways lined by very mossy decaying walls:

No amazing finds but good to see Adoxa moschatellina flowering away so soon after the freeze:

Exploration of Cwm Claister Reserve (a newish one for BWT partitioned off from Forestry Commission land) gave us plenty of records - it is a diverse habitat with obviously "interesting" rocks and influenced no doubt by the limestone a little above it. But it is probably the mosses and lichens that are the most diverse - as non specialists we could only wonder at them.

At least I think I know that the last one is a Cladonia spp.

I may have used the word "mundane" in the heading but with a good intent. This is what we need to get stuck into - recording in lovely habitats and enjoying the whole experience !

Nant Irfon National Park

Disappointing not to find any Filmy Ferns - but then I only got to the first site. It was harder going underfoot than expected and ...

But the purpose of getting to know the area was served and some great scenery appreciated at the same time.

A promising looking site (to me) for Hymenophylum is the Nant Hir cascade - here viewed from the other side of the valley. And it looked to me that getting there from the north end of the reserve should be easier so a definite plan for later in the year to go that way.

Nant Hir feeding into the Irfon.

An impressive Downy Birch in the reserve

I also visited the only part of Hectad SN74 in Brecon VC:

Just the little promontory in from of where I was standing belongs to Brecon. The land across the Llyn Brianne Reservoir is in Cardiganshire.