Ireland

Botany is not really my priority for a while as we enjoy excellent weather in Bantry Bay. Also I don't have my photo-processing software here so these are out of the camera preview pictures which I will update when I have them topped and tailed at home.

A quick stop on the way over at the old Chetwynd viaduct near Cork that last carried a train in 1950s. There's a cafe...

Bere Island - once a defence station for the UK and still inhabited

A shopping trolley joins three cars (one mine) on the ferry

A British gun still in place

Rocks covered in lichen and Sea-spurrey / Thrift

Gateposts that have lost their way

Golden Rod - still a delight in the lanes

I saw lots of botany but little in get-the-camera-out state as it is so dry. It took me a while to recognise dessicated Purple Loose-strife - everywhere in ground that must normally be wet but isn't now.

At the heritage centre I saw and purchased a new book - "The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other islands in Bantry Bay" which will be a great stimulus for further exploration here. Pleased to see that I had spotted many of the featured species for Bere - even if dessicated and past flowering.

Plantago coronopus - Buck's Horn Plantain rosette 

Golden Rod and DBS in the lanes

There were five cars / vans going back - just possible and hemming me in my drivers seat as "the one in middle". You reverse onto this ferry - which is just something you pick up from observation !

Then yesterday we got to Whiddy Island just near Bantry where I chased up a site from the book - Asplenium onopteris - Irish Spleenwort which is rare in Ireland and "one of 16" species that occur in Ireland and not Great Britain. There is some doubt about the true identity of this population I gather and I haven't got a fern book with me but this looks like the thing. There were some plants that seemed like Black Spleenwort (which we do have) nearby.

Here and there

Several outings last week with still plenty to see and record.

First I took a visitor to Cae Pwll y Bo and Vicarage Meadows BWT Reserves. Cae Pwll y Bo had been cut but evidence of the Globeflower population wasn't hard to find among the cut herbage. And around the edge several other species were in evidence including this Hemp-nettle:

Common Hemp-nettle or Y benboeth hollt, Galeopsis tetrahit

More usually the flower background colour is white in my experience so this was a showier example but still the common species as labelled above. The less common "Bifid Hemp-nettle" has the darker markings in the centre extending to the edge of the lip.

The in Vicarage Meadows there was plenty to see, but not all of the species flowering. However this was:

Saw-wort or Dant y pysgodyn, Serratula tinctoria

Then a tour around several sites that required various checks - at the Digedi Valley Road Verge Nature Reserve we saw abundant Hairy St John's-wort along a good stretch of the road (outside the reserve are as well as in) together with a good show of Wild Basil.

Wild Basil or Brenhinllys gwyllt, Clinopodium vulgare

Hairy St John's-wort or Eurinllys blewog, Hypericum hirsutum

(Not photographed last week - they had finished flowering.)

Nearby at another RVNR the "Autumn Crocus" was putting on a very good show. The verge mowing apparently being exactly to specifications for this plant. It's not a crocus so the "correct" common name is given below. It is also known as "Naked Ladies".

Meadow Saffron or Saffrwm y ddôl, Colchicum autumnale

Then on the morning of the BWT 50th anniversary celebrations a group of BWT members met up for a guided walk at Allty Rhongyr where the timing would normally be spot on for seeing flowering Autumn Gentian but this was well-over at both sites where it is now known at the reserve.

We did make a new species record for the reserve though:

Entire-leaved Cotoneaster Cotoneaster cyfanddail Cotoneaster integrifolius

Not a happy find as this can become a real nuisance in limestone scree habitats such as this so this will have to be dug up! 

One of the participants particularly wanted to see the Rock-rose that grows at Allt Rhongyr. We soon found plentiful plants to show but it took a long a little longer to find the one solitary flower still showing !

Common Rock-rose or Cor-rosyn cyffredin, Helianthemum nummularium

Expected and Unexpected finds

The week started with the unexpected: on a walk to stretch our legs around the block in Hay last Sunday I spotted this right next to the pavement as we passed the Medical Packaging factory near the Meadows.

Autumn Lady's-tresses, Troellig yr hydref or Spiranthes spiralis

This is rarely seen in the county but I suspect may be under-recorded. Now is the time to watch out for it in short turf. But obviously the mower and sheep are its mortal enemies - there could well be places (like this in Hay) where it grows but rarely gets to present a spike for long. The insignificant rosette of basal leaves has withered by the time the flowering spike emerges.

So for my eagle-eyed helpers here is a better picture of one from Uphill near Weston-super-Mare to show what to look out for:

Then after the volunteers picnic at Allt Rhongyr (BWT reserve) we did a walk around the reserve and spotted the significant number of white-variant Devil's Bit Scabious in amongst the swards of the normal blue variety:

Devil's-bit Scabious, Tamaid y cythraul or Succisa pratensis at Allt Rhongyr

Nearly back at the cars we were very pleased to find a second site for the reserve's signature plant:

Autumn Gentian, Crwynllys yr hydref or Gentianella amarella at Allt Rhongyr

But when two of us went to Brechfa Pool to answer the question put to me by a visitor a week earlier: "what is that growing out in the deeper water", I was humbled to find that it was actually just Soft Rush with some Marsh Bedstraw amongst it. Good to establish the answer but not the "interesting sedge" my less-than youthful eyesight had me hoping for. 

Soft-rush or Juncus effusus in wetter than normal conditions

We then did a four mile circular walk through the lanes and byways around Brechfa and the common above the pool, generating a good and varied list of records including this Broad-leaved Helleborine by a roadside:

Broad-leaved Helleborine, Y galdrist lydanddail or Epipactis helleborine

And I finally got the shot I wanted of Bittersweet:

Bittersweet, Elinog or Solanum dulcamara

Finally on Friday I joined a BSBI group very much with an expectation in mind for what we should find as we were looking for the Bog Orchid near Pont ar Elan. Populations fluctuate from year to year (and are never very high).

So it was a relief after many flushes had been examined in detail high and low by a large number of BSBI botanists to finally hear the call from Gillian Foulkes that one was found. It turned out that this - with an associated non-flowering plant and one smaller spike were all we were going to see of this in the whole day.

Bog Orchid, Tegeirian bach y gors or Hammarbya paludosa

One of the tiny flowers close-up. They are upside-down compared to most orchids.

The basal leaves  with small bulbils fringing the edge.

This species does grow in Brecon (and Paul Green confirmed one site last year) but I have yet to see it in my county. It will be tricky to spot if plants are the size of the smaller (more typical ?) one we found at Elan:

Not a lot to report except...

Keith Noble has spotted a Small Blue butterfly (Cupido minimus) near Brecon:

"A worn female Small Blue, which, going by the Millennium Atlas, is the first Powys record."

This, I read, is our smallest resident butterfly with a wing span that can be a little as 16mm. Unfortunately this specimen may be a long way from it's sole larval food-plant, Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), which is only known to we botany recorders at a few sites on the limestone at the south of our county. It may be that we have a population of this, often coastal, plant nearer though - perhaps on a road verge site where seeding has been done and limestone used. However what I know about butterflies wouldn't fill a postage stamp in large print so let's hope this isn't the last sighting.

Kidney Vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria which I have only ever photographed in coastal locations such as The Burren in Ireland

Heaven for a Small Blue

We postponed the planned expedition to the Black Mountain this week due to poor weather and hope to make it there next week so I decided to walk the bridle way from Brecon to Y Gaer yesterday and got a lot of records - none spectacular. But sometimes a picture opportunity just presents itself in front of your camera as happened here while I was eating my lunch near Cradoc on the way back.

Hogweed or Efwr, Heracleum sphondylium

The camera was out of my bag to record this new viewpoint of the Beacons for me:

I'm also on the lookout on days like that for updates to common species where I feel I haven't yet got a really good picture so I tried to get one of plentiful Bittersweet here:

Bittersweet ir Elinog, Solanum dulcamara

Still not the picture I am seeking !

another in the same vein:

Meadowsweet or Erwain, Filipendula ulmaria

at least I have anthers covered now...

Brambles, Roads and Car Parks

I spent three days in North Wales on a Brambles Course last weekend. They are now slightly less of a mystery than they were but I'm only starting on a difficult road if I am going to get to recognise easily even the more common of about 500 species !

Rubus ulmifolius - the only sexually active species and quite common

(one I ought to get familiar with)

I have many more pictures from this course on floralimages.uk but won't burden this blog with any more!

On Wednesday the group (well two of us) went along to help Steph record a long Road Verge Nature Reserve near Henrhyd Falls. While waiting at our rendezvous in Brecon at the BBNP Car Park (police Car park also) I noticed a good stand of the newly named Knapweed I featured last week. So anyone who wants to examine this species can go along and see it easily there...

Slender Knapweed, Centaurea debeauxii at the at the BBNP Car Park in Brecon

At the roadside near Henrhyd we found many interesting things including:

Common Hemp-nettle or Y benboeth, Galeopsis tetrahit

Zigzag Clover or Meillionen igam-ogam, Trifolium medium

Beech Fern or Rhedynen gorniog, Phegopteris connectilis

Catching up

... with reporting what we have been doing. "We" are the Brecnockshire Botanical Recording Group and it's a busy time. So taking my pictures in order:

Two weeks ago we met up with the Monmouthshire Botanical Recording  Group to explore our common border at Tarren yr Esgob (near Capel y Ffin, which means "Chapel on the border"). It was quite a climb / scramble to get up to the botanically-rich crags where the rare Sorbus (Whitebeam) shared by only our two counties grows:

Llanthony Whitebeam or Cerddin Ewyas, Sorbus stenophylla

This is also one of only two Sorbus species so far discovered that are pentaploid (have five sets of chromosomes per cell) - the other grows at Craig y Cilau, also in Brecknockshire.

Up there we encountered many lime-loving plants - in an area where the Geological map does not mark any limestone but there are "calcrete" layers marked nearby. Anyway the vegetation speaks for itself and is finding the water seeping out of the rocks to its taste. This included a fine selection of the more delicate ferns:

Beech Fern or Rhedynen gorniog, Phegopteris connectilis

Limestone Fern or Rhedynen y calchfaen, Gymnocarpium robertianum

(Note these two are growing together in this instance.)

Oak Fern or Rhedynen dridarn, Gymnocarpium dryopteris

... actually seen only in Monmouthshire at Tarren yr Esgob - but this picture is from the Grwyne Fawr Valley in Brecknock which I visited two days later.

And we were pushing our way through large swards of this:

Lemon-scented Fern, Oreopteris limbosperma

Then last week we went to a farm on the banks of the Wye near Hay to walk part of an old railway line and look at some ponds. The species I photographed were:

Welted Thistle or Ysgallen grech, Carduus crispus

I've only knowingly seen this a few times. I suspect I will be recognising it more in the future after Mike Porter pointed this one out.

Blue Water-Speedwell or Graeanllys y dwr, Veronica anagallis-aquatica

(Or maybe a hybrid of the same - Mike Porter is working on that one.)

Chicory or Ysgellog, Cichorium intybus

A solitary plant on the side of a field.

Scentless Mayweed or Amranwen ddi-sawr, Tripleurospermum inodorum

Edging a field planted with a fodder mix.

Slender Knapweed, Centaurea debeauxii

(A newly segregated species that we are only just starting to get to grips with.)

Rigid Hornwort or Cyrnddail caled, Ceratophyllum demersum

In one of the ponds.

... Many more were seen and recorded.

Meadows of all types and a parasite

Last week two of us set out to explore and record at Cwm Cadlan National Nature Reserve - with ambitious plans to go through the reserve; out onto the common and back by another route.

In the event we had hardly got 200 yards from the car by lunchtime - there was so much to spend time on and investigate.

The marshy grassland found at Cwm Cadlan is unusual as lime-rich spring water flows through the reserve, creating alkaline habitats in amongst the more acid ones.

Marsh Lousewort or Melog y waun, Pedicularis palustris was present in the marshy meadow near the entrance in grater numb ers than I have ever seen before. (This isn't a picture from Thursday...)

And we were just in time to catch the last of the Fragrant Orchids - which are also plentiful there:

Fragrant Orchid or Tegeirian pêr, Gymnadenia conopsea - approaching the airfield after a sortie... (this picture was taken on the reserve)

Then on a higher meadow (just below the common) we found several different species of Marsh Orchid, some a little past their best including:

Southern Marsh-orchid or Tegeirian-y-gors deheuol, Dactylorhiza praetermissa.

Many other species were recorded; we covered a third (or less) of the reserve and repeat visits to the area are definitely required.

Then on Friday, Mike alerted me to a good stand of Ivy Broom-rape right in the centre of Brecon which I visited on the way back from our meeting at Berthlwyd Farm on Saturday:

Ivy Broomrape or Gorfanhadlen eiddew, Orobanche hederae in the trees between Brecon Hospital Car Park and the main road.

The joint BSBI / BWT meeting at Berthlwyd Farm went well with 16 of us botanising in meadows full of, in particular, Great Butterfly Orchids.

Picture by Steph Coates

A good list of species was recorded and five of us went to the New Inn in Ystradfellte for Cream Tea afterwards. Some went on to see waterfalls. A great area of the county for all these pursuits.