Floral Images

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Cwm Idwal

2009-04-02T16:12:00.003Z

First trip for me and early for most botany. But Purple Saxifrage flowers now and will be over later when this botanist's paradise is in full flow.

It took a while to find the first plant below the Devil's Kitchen - but as usual once the "right type of rock" had been identified, finding more was easy.

There were several interesting lichens there as well which I may or may not have identified correctly. The British Lichen Society multi-access key helps a lot, full marks to them - but I still need to know more about lichens to use it to full effect.

The only slight problem with the photos was that the biggest ever dust particle was apparent on my sensor when I got back - just a little extra work with Photoshop but definitely the downside of a digital SLR.

And the scenery was magnificent as well, naturally.

Filmy-ferns

2009-03-16T09:30:00.003Z

A trip to West Cork for family reasons but the challenge to find something new for me was the same as ever.

Glengarriff came up trumps with Wilson's Filmy-fern. I was sure this must be there but found that the Tunbridge Filmy-fern I stumbled upon a few years ago, when I hardly knew what they were, is very much dominant there. (In places the plant is abundant.)

The identifcation is hard as well but, as usual, once I found it I realised straight away that this was "significantly different" - and there is only one other species in the genus in the UK.

They were growing together with Wilson's higher up the tree trunk on which I found them. To me the longer vein cells were more diagnostic than the vein ends being at the end of the frond - I find that even with a x10 lens the vein ends of the Tunbridge fern are often at the end of the leaf to my eyes.

Llangors

2008-06-24T13:28:00.002Z

We (the U3A hay Botany group) were invited to explore some botanically rich meadow land near Llangors lake by the Biodiversity Officer for the Brecon Beacons Park Authority. Frankly the botanical riches were a little overwhelming for us but, as the afternoon progressed were able to assist in identifying three good sites for seed harvest (collecting seed for other Brecon Beacons Park meadows) later in the month and identify some of the species at these sites.

A few we found:
Hypericum tetrapterum, Square-stalked St John's Wort
Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged Robin
Anthoxanthum odoratum, Sweet Vernal Grass
Cynosurus cristatus, Dog's Tail Grass
Trifolium dubium, Lesser Trefoil
Trifolium micranthum, Slender Trefoil
Lathyrus pratensis, Meadow Vetchling
Lotus corniculatus, Bird's Foot Trefoil
Leucanthemum vulgare, Oxeye Daisy

Getting lucky

2008-06-14T13:30:00.003Z

Odd to walk past some Tree Mallow growing near Grove Park in Weston-super-Mare almost every day for several years and never notice it in flower (maybe it takes a while to mature enough to do so...). So when I went back there from the new abode last week it was good to see it in full bloom.

Not to the top

2008-06-14T13:19:00.003Z

I had to tell more than one exhausted "peak bagger" that actually I wasn't going for the top on Snowdon last week. A good botanical site nestles below the cliffs to the east of the peak and the main path is the way to get there until about the 3/4 point where you turn off.

Nice to get a cup of coffee on the way down though - thanks to the popularity of the main path and the fact that the cafe at the top is currently closed. Also it was good to see the railway (only going 3/4 way at the moment itself) chugging up and down - not such a blight on the landscape as I had imagined it would be. One day I may bag the peak - but that isn't the way for Northern Rockcress, Parsley fern and Roseroot, amongst other new things for the website.

It was good to see Thrift so far from the sea as well.

I was actually hoping to find a very local speciality but it wasn't obliging this year. There is always 2009 !

A great walk and my front garden

2008-05-08T14:06:00.003Z

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

2008-04-02T18:28:00.003Z

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

2008-04-01T10:37:00.004Z

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

2008-03-09T10:45:00.006Z

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

2007-12-13T18:15:00.002Z

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 florida on old marker posts.

Oh - and Cowberry - I nearly forgot.

Offa's Dyke

2007-10-31T21:24:00.000Z

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

2007-09-15T17:42:00.000Z

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.

It's always worth taking the camera

2007-09-08T16:22:00.000Z

Even is that means an extra load up Pen y Fan.

The highlight (botanically) was finding a rush in full flower - but my preoccupation with catching up the rest of family meant poor details recorded and a difficult identification. (Actually rushes are always a difficult identification for me - but they are very worthwhile plants at the interface between the grasses and more conventional flowers.) Luckily Rodney Burton on the UK Botany Yahoo forum was able to help me.

And all the way up I noticed an unusual flower not quite open - found one open eventually - and it was obviously a Willow-herb on closer examination - turns out to be a New Zealand one that is spreading along paths like this one in the Brecon Beacons.

Tricky genus

2007-09-06T19:29:00.000Z

After the first walk with no photographs for some time last week at least I found things to investigate and record in Cusop Dingle today.

Mainly Hypericum spp. (the St. John's Worts) - a tricky genus and no easier for finding different species all close together as is often the case for these. At least they have the good manners to flower (a bit) even at this time of year.

But my field guide (Rose), in my hands, is inadequate for these and although I am getting better at recording all the important features for checking in Stace later it still was hard to be totally sure what I found - so several this week have the "uncertain" flag in the database and resultant warning on the site.

Continued up to meet the modern road into the Llanthony valley and came back down that way, finding a Hawkweed on Offa's Dyke path that I think I was able to identify to the section (only amazingly erudite botanists go beyond this for this genus).

The road up from the Dingle is I think the older route and clearly traceable (and a public footpath) up to the modern tarmac road. I think Kilvert will have come up this way as well as on the Welsh side.

Mixed day

2007-08-24T17:24:00.000Z

"Private woodland - please don't start fires" - great attitude and very botanically rich paths into it. Just a pity they hadn't added to the notice "logging in progress" ! So I had to divert.

But then I got back and my pictures weren't that great. Realised I hadn't photographed Galeopsis tetrahit before (and so should have taken more pictures of it with more care !) and had probably seen G. bifida (a closely related species) as well ! (The carry-able book I take with me in my rucksack doesn't mention G. bifida.)

And my Heath Speedwells in this locality were blue, not lilac as usual. I still think they are that species, after careful checking in Stace when I got back - and the species is "highly variable".

I was partly hoping to get near Kilvert's Graig Pwll Du - not to see the waterfall which I know is regarded as a dangerous exploit these days** but just to see the scenery around. Well I did the latter briefly before diverting from the public footpath because of the logging and a lot of confers have just been cleared from the land above the area - hopefully to be replaced by broad-leaves...

** No doubt Kilvert was in full Victorian gentleman's garb when he climbed down to it with the Mole catcher...

Walking to Clyro

2007-08-17T20:05:00.000Z

You don't have to walk along the road - the walk over the fields that Kilvert described is still a public right of way and reasonably easy to find. (Not much trodden though - the usual way to see where a path crosses a field from trodden grass doesn't work - at least at this time of year.)

Nice to come across a Welted Thistle at last - it's not particularly rare but eluded me until now. Because it is a tricky identification I took plenty of pictures of the "relevant bits".

And the marshy area by the Clyro Brook was a delight - particularly for the blue of Skullcap all over parts of the area. I must look out for mention of it in Kilvert's Diary - but I wonder was it called Skullcap then in this area ?

Nothing new

2007-08-08T17:57:00.000Z

A lovely day for a walk along the Wye Valley Walk towards Glasbury.

I didn't actually find any species I had not photographed for FloralImages before but several good examples of some I need better photographs of.

The slight surprise was Marsh Woundwort in what seemed a dryish place. But it was near the Wye and a baby frog did leap out of the undergrowth as I positioned myself !

A disappointment (and worry)

2007-08-02T11:27:00.000Z

The point of my first meeting with the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust was to find and count Bog Orchids.

So it was a disappointment to hear from the warden at the start that there were very unlikely to be any as they had been stolen.

It's sad that such people are still around (and worrying to hear that this sort of thing is on the increase again). Those, like me, who seek out rare plants to photograph undisturbed are going to have to be careful about revealing locations.

Hopefully some of the bulbils that grow on the leaf edges will have been scattered in the plunder.

But such meetings are never wasted - I would not have been able to identify White beak-sedge without having it pointed out (at least not without hours with a lens and book and some swearing) ! And it is an interesting little "grass" - declining in most places but increasing in the Elan valley.

This was my first encounter with flowering Marsh St-John's Wort as well.

How to pick the wrong day.

2007-07-25T17:27:00.000Z

I don't let a little rain stop my quest - oh no !

Friday 20th July seemed the day to call in near the Witney bypass for a rare sight (unique to Oxfordshire and possibly declining).

I had family reasons to visit Oxford anyway and the rest of the week had been spoken for.

The rain was relentless even in the morning - I gave up soaked in this botanically rich area soon after getting some tolerable pictures of the Woundwort. Made my family visit in Oxford and set off for home at about 3 pm with my daughter, coming to stay for the weekend.

We eventually got back to Oxford at about 10 pm - which made us some of the lucky ones - many got stuck overnight around Gloucester.

Made it to Hay the next day via the M4 and superior Welsh roads from the new Severn Bridge up through Talgarth - a 50% increase on the usual distance travelled !

Oddly we never encountered rain requiring "fast" wipers. Just several flash floods at the limit of my preparedness to venture. But I heard that after the false lull in the early afternoon many people encountered monsoon rain such as they had never seen before.

Getting there late

2007-07-13T17:42:00.000Z

This week was far too late for Globeflowers at Cae Pwll y Bo Nature Reserve but I went anyway and enjoyed getting to know the place. Several not uncommon but new to FloralImages species were added. And all was not lost with Globeflowers as I got to see a straggler with all petals lost - exposing the working parts of the flower to view. So my cultivated example still leads the FloralImages resource and it will have to wait for next year to get wild examples.

Vicarage Meadows nearby was also rewarding, if wet, and I saw Dyer's Greenweed for the first time together with some past their best Orchids. Another great reserve clearly but I will have to consider upgrading my walking boots to cope with Welsh wetness. (I'm not complaining - I gather Wilson's Filmy Fern grows in the area and I would not want that to be deprived of its preferred conditions. I must seek it out some day.)

On the (not direct) way back I stopped to investigate some spectacular spikes I noticed on the Brecon - Hereford Road (just after Brecon where there is a turning on the right for T******* 3 m - I can't reconcile my notebook scrawl with anything on the map but the turning is before Felinfach and the Orchids are on the left opposite the turning.

Dashing about after flowers

2007-07-02T20:20:00.000Z

Fate is conspiring to keep me away from Hay and its environs at the moment - and the weather is not inviting for local foraging in any case - but I do find increasingly that going to known sites to see a rare-ish plant is oddly dissatisfying.

Necessary to some extent to increase FloralImages' scope but getting there to find you are too late / too early / the thing just isn't performing well this year can be a bit deflating.

So a half way house is to try to stop off on other trips that happen to go near. But then you don't really have time to do the job properly.

So actually the real buzz comes in such conditions when you either stumble across something unexpected or a good friend agrees to take you on a tour of his finds. The latter happened on a visit to Plymouth (young son to be visited). David Fenwick (see his site) bustled me around the area allowing me to add 20 more species to the site. I found another five or so, partly by accident as above, on the rest of the trip so it's been quite a productive week. (See them all at this link.)

But I can't wait to spend some days exploring the nature reserves and roadsides of Powys and Herefordshire at a more leisurely pace...

Getting wet

2007-06-21T14:24:00.000Z

My early forays to explore the local botany seem always to end up focussing on pools.
Exploring The Begwns - a local National Trust open area above Clyro - I soon stumbled upon one and spent the next hour or so getting soaked as I strove for the best angle on the delights around the shore.

Shoreweed doesn't throw up a flower stem unless conditions are right (and then only a male one) so on spotting this I had to get a good picture. It's only when you get up close (and wet !) that you can appreciate that this is a flower of standard construction - just rather differently proportioned from most - and a very unusual Plantain (because that is the family) in having a solitary flower on each stem - hence the Latin name Littorella uniflora. Then I got wetter trying to get a good shot of the female flower lurking at the base of the plant.

...And of course all achieved with minimal disturbance - a principle I try to be true to whatever the problems - I know flower photographers have a bad reputation with some wildlife conservationists.

Not that the sheep who graze the area have such scruples - the Marsh Speedwell was holding on bravely despite them.

Local sites you never quite get round to

2007-06-14T16:00:00.000Z

Eighteen years in the West country and I never once went to see the "Bath Asparagus" in it's flowering season.

So, now that I live in Wales, I decided that I must make a slight detour from a trip to a meeting in Radstock and see them. Well worth a drive through the lanes south of Bradford on Avon at this time of year. The local name reflects the fact that people used to eat it cooked like Asparagus. Maybe they still do - but if it was really great then wouldn't the TV chefs be using it ?

Reminds me of the reports that "Alexanders" used to be eaten as a vegetable "before the introduction of Celery" (I read somewhere). A correspondent who has tried it told me that, now he has done so, he understands why Celery replaced it !

Oh and I noticed that it (the Bath Asparagus) was still showing in the hedgerows towards but not right up to Radstock going back west - in lanes I have often travelled - but that would have been on the way to the pub...

Nice examples

2007-06-12T09:20:00.000Z

It isn't all about finding rare and obscure flowers. Getting to know my new locality I soon found some old favourites on the Wye bank plus a really attractive spray of a Water Forget-me-not I have seen before but always in less than ideal conditions. So it's nice to be able to add a picture of which I am somewhat proud of a splendid species.

(What's more it is one that you would expect to find in such a location - unlike the query Philadelphus near it - must be a garden escape from the houses nearby.)