Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - September 2007 - No 73
Simeon Jones

Leader: Simeon Jones

The walk was scheduled to begin in the early evening on what was a cold and blowy spring day. A quick glance skywards saw clouds racing by as the group met by the yacht club. There was a good turnout of members as well as some new faces and the group numbered around twenty.

We headed off in the direction of the meadow to the west of West Dock. This is a small area that is left to grow each spring and then cut for hay in late July. The regime has been carried out for two years and some interesting plants have already found a niche there. Being so close to Burry Port Dunes the underlying soil is sandy and this area was until recently used as railway sidings. An orchid was quickly found, the dark striations on the lateral sepals identifying it as Green-winged Orchid Orchis morio Tegeirian y Waun. Yellow oat grass Trisetum flavescens Ceirchwellt Melyn and Bulbous Buttercup Ranunculuc bulbosus Blodyn–ymenyn Bondew (which has reflexed sepals) grow here as they have a liking for the calcareous sandy soil - meadow buttercup being its more ubiquitous cousin.

A small stand of Hedgerow Crane’s-bill Geranium pyrenaicum Pig-yr-aran y Gwrych was seen in the corner of the meadow whilst Round-leaved Crane’s-bill Geranium rotundifolium Pig-yr-aran Grynddail was discovered on the dock wall. The small patch of the rare Small-flowered Catchfly Silene gallica Gludlys Amryliw growing in disturbed soil on the top of the dock wall was shown to the group. It needs this type of substrate to grow and future management will try and ensure this. Other plants seen included Danish Scurvygrass Cochlearia danica Llwylys Denmarc which has only recently spread along the central reservation of motorways due to winter road-salting, Oxford Ragwort Senecio squalidus Creulys Rhydychen which spread from its original escape-site of Oxford Botanic Garden by being wafted along railway lines in the wake of passing trains, and Rock Samphire Crithmum Maritimum Corn-carw’r Môr, formerly used as a spring vegetable especially in pickles, growing towards the bottom of the dock wall.

At this point the sky darkened as an icy wind rose, to be followed by horizontal, driving rain, whereupon the party hurried back to the cars and the meeting swiftly came to a premature end!