Glynhir Review 2014
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Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Registered Charity Number 212560 BSBI Vice-county Co-recorders for Carmarthenshire Richard and Kath Pryce, Trevethin, School Road, Pwll, LLANELLI, Carmarthenshire, SA15 4AL answerphone: 01554 775847 email: Pryce [email protected] 17th August 2014 BSBI Week at Glynhir, Friday 19th – Friday 26th July 2014 Thank you all for contributing to this year’s Glynhir meeting and producing another exceptional variety of new and updated records. Judging by the letters and emails of appreciation we have received you must have enjoyed the week. We greatly value your knowledge and expertise which you so generously share. This year the weather didn’t let us down except insofar as it was generally too hot for energetic recording which resulted in, perhaps, an over-emphasis on visiting cooler upland areas. We’ve now had a chance to make an initial analysis of the records produced during the week, although we await some cards. We’ve included a table showing the highlights at the end of this letter which also shows who visited where. A few of the best finds are highlighted below. The Saturday afternoon visit to Cwrtbrynybeirdd gave us the opportunity to examine a very diverse, base-rich, flushed pasture where Eriophorum latifolium and Eleocharis multicaulis were new tetrad records. Arthur Chater pointed out a number of rather, past-their- best, often half-grazed, small almost sickle-shaped leaves which are very likely to be Platanthera bifolia. We will obviously need to revisit the site next year at the time the plants should be in flower to make a re- examination. If confirmed it would be a significant new hectad record. Sunday saw us split into a Arthur, Kath and Martyn in the flushed meadows at Cwrtbrynybeirdd with Carreg number of smaller groups to Cennen Castle in the background. Photo Richard Pryce record tetrads in Brechfa Forest. Arthur Chater, Andy Jones and Nigel Stringer (who joined the Glynhir residents for three of the day excursions) refound a Sibthorpia site discovered by Alison Baird (nee Heath) in 2012, whilst Martyn Stead with Kath and myself, found a new site for it although we didn’t realise it was Sibthorpia until the evening back at Glynhir (it was so much larger and more robust than I’d ever seen it before!). On Monday the majority of the group attended the funeral of James Iliff at Cilycwm. James and Mary, over the years, have contributed by far the greatest number records in the north-eastern part of the county having also made a special study of the Lycopods in that area. The day was concluded by some of us taking a leisurely walk around the Glynhir grounds including the waterfall which Paul Green had not seen before. Most remarkable was the ‘explosion’ of Rorippa islandica which certainly seems to have got a hold in some of the cobbled areas this year, only previously having been recorded here by Margot Godfrey and Jean Green in 2010. Those who didn’t go to James’ funeral visited the Coed saltmarsh on the Tywi estuary south of Carmarthen and discovered a new site for Ruppia maritima (a new post 2000 hectad record) and also Eleocharis uniglumis – both are new tetrad records. Most of the party went to Llyn-y-fan Fach on Tuesday where many made a circuit of the lake with some peeling off to examine the cliffs or to walk to the summit. It was good to see that the Arctic-Alpine specialities on the cliffs seem to be thriving, although only a very small area was examined. However, we failed to refind the Salix herbacea last seen on the cliffs here in 1983. Callitriche hamulata ssp. brutia was a new record in both tetrads, convincingly showing its stalked flowers, in contrast to C. hamulata ssp. hamulata, without the stalks, which was also in the lake. But perhaps the star find was Andy’s, who waded into the lake and retrieved a specimen of Potamogeton alpinus from a small plant not far from the shore – the first record since 1905: it was subsequently found to be in both tetrads. A specimen of probable Persicaria minor was also collected from by the lake but needs confirmation. We arranged to visit the attenuation lagoons and irrigation ponds at Ffos Las racecourse on Wednesday morning where Eleocharis uniglumis was found in a monospecific stand juxtaposed with stands of E. palustris, affording an opportunity to compare the jizz of these two – uniglumis being much more delicate and a much lighter, yellower green in contrast to the grey- green, more robust stems of palustris. The E. uniglumis was a new tetrad record and the furthest VC record from the coast (about 4km from the plants seen by members of the 2008 Glynhir meeting at Banc-y-Lord). Walking back to the cars after our picnic, Kath photographed a very attractive lucerne which, in the evening, Graeme identified from the photos as Medicago sativa nothosubsp. varia, the first VC record. For the first time for several years we didn’t visit either of the county’s main dune systems at Pendine or Pembrey – we don’t know whether the ‘regulars’ get fed-up with these sites or whether you would welcome repeat visits. In any case we can only visit them on Sundays due Medicago sativa nothosubsp. varia at Ffos Las Photo Kath Pryce to military access restrictions. We partly made up for the lack of a coastal site by briefly visiting Pembrey Harbour on Wednesday afternoon when Graeme picked-out a few plants of a Sedum which Kath and I had seen previously but never in flower. Its flowers were cream- coloured and Graeme later ran it down to S. nicaeense, a new VC record. It’s origin could have been a garden throw-out but, more likely, as it was just above the line of highest tides, a fragment from a garden could have been washed down a local river, then brought to and deposited at Pembrey by sea! On Thursday the party split into groups again, all going to the St.Clears - Whitland area in the west. Mary, Martyn, Bron and Dave discovered Kickxia elatine in some quantity growing on a field headland at Penrhiwgoch Isaf, NE of Whitland Abbey, whilst Margot, Jenny and Kath recorded Vulpia myuros in St Clears. Both, together with several other records made by these two groups, were first post 2000 hectad records. Both Arthurs, Graeme and I were Sedum nicaeense at Pembrey Harbour Photo Graeme Kay joined by Matt Sutton and Stephen Coker at Llanddowror where Graeme spotted Potentilla argentea escaped from a nearby garden, a new VC record. Perhaps more significantly, Circaea x intermedia was found to be locally frequent in several patches by the wooded access track to Little Pale Wood. This is a new hectad record and c.20km west of Tony & Viv Lewis’ Bronwydd plant, the previous westernmost record in the VC which was also about the westernmost record in Wales, the other being in the Arth valley, SN46, Cards). Arthur Chater also sought out a new hectad record for Trichomanes gametophyte in a rock cleft by the Afon Taf whilst Arthur Copping later confirmed Poa pratensis sensu stricto (as opposed to P. humilis which is frequent in Carms.). As the hot weather continued, no-one was very keen to travel a long distance on the final recording day, so the opportunity was taken to visit a couple of nearby parts of Mynydd Du (the Black Mountain) which had no previous high-precision records. Martyn, Bron and Dave explored the Nant Garw valley where, not far from the road, they found a plant of Cirsium x subspinuligerum (Cirsium vulgare x palustre), a new VC record, together with a quite extensive population of Sagina subulata, a new hectad record. The latter somewhat puzzled me and cast doubt in my mind as to whether the previous records of S. nodosa from this vicinity were, in fact, S. subulata. However, when later working through Bron’s photographs taken on the day, it was clear that both species are present in discrete populations, maybe 50m from one another! Away from the road, down in they valley they also made several new tetrad records including Phegopteris connectilis, Cystopteris fragilis, Wahlenbergia, Carum, Circaea x intermedia at Little Pale Wood. Photo Richard Pryce Scutellaria minor, etc. The remainder of the party, joined today by Chris, Guy and Tristan, searched a part of the mountain where a small area of Carboniferous Limestone is shown on the map. Starting from a car park from where numerous previous forays had commenced, Graeme quickly discovered a plant of Cirsium acaule. This is now the third plant to be found in Carms, the first being discovered only about 200m away by Kath and me in 2011 and the second by Martyn, at Banc Wern Wgan, about 2.5km to the SW, during Glynhir week 2013. A small population of Dryopteris carthusiana was discovered, unusually growing from a cliff, whilst Wahlenbergia hederacea, Antennaria dioica and Gentianella amarella were all found in new locations. Having returned to the cars with an hour or two in hand we travelled to a series of calcareous flushes further east along the scarp. I casually mentioned that Pembrey Harbour. Photo Bron Wright Carex dioica had been found in this area by Mrs Vaughan in 1976 and had been searched for on a number of occasions since, without success. Within five minutes, Graeme had found the species and further searching revealed several plants in two separate flushes! Does it therefore still occur in other similar habitat nearby, including about 300m to the west, at the grid reference given by Mrs Vaughan of her original find? A task for next year’s meeting perhaps! There were, of course, many more plant records of interest and we will write a more comprehensive report for BSBI News in due course.