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Saturday, August 01, 2015

Where Rivers Join

This is where the Elan (left) flows into the Wye; the Elan, of course, lacking the water taken for water supplies in England and Wales. It is right in the 1km square I have chosen to focus on in that area so on Thursday we set off from a parking spot near the picture.

We started by making for the sites of some interesting old records on the slopes above the river. The going was difficult due to the Bracken but we explored some good stone outcrops with interesting finds.

Joan spotted this, a very easily overlooked little plant, and it turns out the species hasn't been recorded in the whole of Brecknockshire very often at all and only twice in this hectad in the 1980s and 90s (according to the records I have access to).
Bird's-foot Troed yr aderyn Ornithopus perpusillus

Then as we tried to get to higher ground we discovered two good populations of Beech Fern:
Beech Fern, Rhedynen gorniog or Phegopteris connectilis
... which was comforting as the Bracken beat us and we had to make our way down again, via a good population of Ivy-leaved Bellflower on a grassy outcrop near a stream:
Ivy-leaved Bellflower, Clychlys dail eiddew or Wahlenbergia hederacea

Even Climbing Corydalis has not been recorded often in this hectad and in the area only three times before.
Climbing Corydalis, Mwg-y-ddaear dringol or Ceratocapnos claviculata

We finished off our day by recording in the lane where the car was and circling round via a path along the river where amongst many goodies we found a nice population of Corn Mint:
Corn Mint, Mintys yr âr or Mentha arvensis

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