Not recorded since 1950 but seen last week by Ray Woods at the edges of a Swede field.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Small-flowered Catchfly
Sunday, October 01, 2023
The Molinia Horribleness scale
No exciting finds this week for the group (but a member, Anne found a Musk Thistle on the Usk):
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Quillwort at Llyn Carw
Friday, September 01, 2023
An exciting find and other matters
A record popped up on iRecord last week that is a great new find for the Vice County.
We already have the most southerly occurrence of Circaea alpina (Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade) in the British Isles I think but our one small (and somewhat struggling) population at Craig y Cilau is now joined by a substantial and healthy population found by Sam Thomas while visiting the (also very rare) population of Sorbus stenophylla near Capel y Ffin in the Llanthony valley.
Friday, May 12, 2023
Yet another round up
A first for many of us last Wednesday when eagle-eyed Arlene spotted Adder's Tongue (a fern) in lightly grazed turf near Talgarth.
It isn't often recorded these days in the county and was a new find for most of the group. (As for myself, I have seen it before and even spotted it in the past on more sparsely vegetated sites but I would not have picked these ones out from the abundant Celandine leaves among the grass I am sure.)
Thursday, September 08, 2022
Chasing Wild Geese
It was a little late in the season to catch Llyn y Fan Fawr with a low water level but, spurred on by the news that its Carmarthenshire counterpart (Llyn y Fan Fach) had revealed some exciting finds when its level dropped dramatically this year, we decided to try.
At least the weather was reasonably kind to us and we found Quillwort or Isoetes lacustris which hasn't been recorded there since 1972.
Luck played a part but also having shore bound colleagues pointing out where to go helped a lot (they could see better than I could from above). I didn't even need to get my feet wet (just) as I waded in my Wellingtons beyond where the common Shoreweed grew.
The only picture I have is from my microscope showing the characteristic division of the leaf cross section into four compartments so here is a drawing from an old book:
And my cross-sections:Saturday, June 25, 2022
Half a year gone
And we have been active.
Members of the botany group were invited to update our records for Townhall Clock - Adoxa moschatellina from early March.
Results are pretty much now in (it is hard to spot and record from now on and often completely died back).
It was refound in 21 of the target monads (1km squares) with Gaye and Lynne finding the longest "lost" population near Crickhowell (last seen 1957). (All the updates were for squares where it had not been seen since 1999.)
There were records from 34 squares where the species had never before been recorded. Other records stretched from near Craig y nos (the species peters out to the south west there) to Cilmery near Builth Wells.
Click here for the full results.