A great walk and my front garden

Last Saturday was my first BSBI field trip of the year and, as ever, it was great. Emily lead us on a tour of the Dinas Bran area behind Llangollen with breathtaking views, some great botany and knowledgeable company to help me learn more about the subject.

For me the highlight was Changing Forget-me-not. By no means a rarity but probably unknown to most casual walkers. It has minute flowers with the charming characteristic of starting out bright yellow and then changing to a more Forget-me-not blue later.

My "front garden"

Well I don't have one, having opted for a town house, but the pavement outside the front door has already offered a display of Rue-leaved Saxifrage and now (while clearing the asbo weeds) I find a Spergularia - which turns out as expected to be Sand-spurry - Spergularia rubra, after a lot of hand lens searching for (scarce on this one) glandular hairs.

Yellow Whitlow-grass

Some flowers require a special trip. This is one of them - it only grows at all in the UK on the Gower and it flowers in March / early April. So off I went.

I tried three possible sites. The first I drew a blank - probably because I wasn't getting the location quite right - but I cut my losses and tried possibility two. That was bereft, I am sure, of a current population.

But Pennard Castle came up trumps and the display was splendid. So a great deal of (very enjoyable) walking and three separate parking charges paid off in the end. The plant loves to grow in pockets of poor soil in rocks - or in this case crumbling ruin walls.

The view from the castle was stunning as well.

Once again the excursion had me reflecting on the unsatisfactory nature of "bagging" finds. It would be so much better (IMHO) to spend one's life walking the great botanical areas of the country all year round and stumble upon species as if by accident. But it would take more than a lifetime to find it all !

Cilcenni Dingle

It's "one of the most species-rich woodlands in Radnorshire" (Flora of Radnorshire, R Woods) so I had to take a peek.

These Radnorshire dingles are, I am aware pretty difficult to explore, so I was heartened by the "come on in" attitude of the Woodland Trust on their website - it's access land as well. But it was hard - I had to get out before the top and re-enter on the (easy) footpath through the middle. But well worth it ! Major find was Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage, in some quantity and quite distinctive from its commoner relative growing with it.

Lovely Marsh Marigolds as well.

Trees and other matters

It's not as though nothing has been happening so I should get back to reporting the development of FloralImages !

Outside

The important bit... Well Cwm Byddog was well worth the visit a few weeks ago with Moschatel carpeting areas (I've never seen that before - it's commonish in the Mendips but "local") and other flowers such as Barren Strawberry starting to flower. Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage was also abundant but I couldn't trace the reported Alternate-leaved version.

Trees
The trees though are the major feature of Cwm Byddog and doing them photographic justice is hard. Old pollarded oaks are rare - these are thought to be up to 450 years old.

The old Yews at Cusop churchyard were worth examining, coming off Cusop Hill last week. These are also reputed to be very old.

Inside

The reason for my lack of blogging is partly major "upgrades" to FloralImages. Best not to boringly go through the detail but if it's an improvement than hopefully traffic / user satisfaction will increase ! The introduction of links to get around the various "parts" of plants is perhaps worth mentioning. So, if you land on a particular flower, want to see the leaf shape and I have a suitable photo the link will be there.

Rhos Goch

A magic place that is now "access land" but you need to take great care in visiting. I was fortunate that the warden, Andrew Ferguson, showed me around and pointed out the pitfalls. Now I know where to go (with a companion - it's that sort of place) next year for the flora.

At this time of year it was all ankle deep at least and there were plenty of places to get stuck if not careful. "Rhos Goch" means Red Moor but it is actually a bog (in fact several varieties of bog) that is "intriguing to some and respected by all" in the local community. There are very few places like this left now and it is being managed carefully by the Countryside Council for Wales to preserve its nature and the rare plants that grow there.

Not much to photograph this time (I was busy keeping upright anyway) except for the lovely lichen, Usnea subfloridana on old marker posts.

Oh - and Cowberry - I nearly forgot.

Offa's Dyke

Not the best time for flowers - and not even much in the way of fungi in evidence where I have walked recently - so pictures last week were of Offa's Dyke !

A reserve along an old track

It's not too late yet - and Llandeilo Graban Nature Reserve in Radnorshire will be even more worth visiting next year at peak time. The reserve is along the verge of a road that was part of the railway line from Three Cocks to Llanidloes. Must have been a wonderful railway trip. Amongst the signs of it's past use - the most obvious is that to get onto it you drive under the road and then do a double left to actually get on it.

The cars that use it now don't see anything as they flash past - they are not a danger though - bikes are (but NOT their fault !) as they approach unannounced from behind. The verges / cutting sides provide a variety of habitats and Welsh Stonecrop grows here amongst many other wild flowers. (Of course it wasn't flowering this late.)

Amongst other flowers not recorded by me before was Wavy Bitter-cress.