Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - September 1983
Richard Pryce
The very mild winter was responsible for the first Celandines flowering before Christmas throughout the area and the mild, fairly sunny weather until April maintained the show of spring flowers. Both the Early Dog Violet (Viola reichenbachiana) and Sweet Violet (V. odorata) were discovered in quantity near Glyn Abbey but the end of April saw a change to very cool, wet, unsettled weather which was responsible for a very soggy recording meeting at Llannon and prolonged the spring blooms until mid June, by which time the summer flowers were catching up.
This wet weather suited the ferns, in particular, and several new records were made including the hybrid Shield Fern Polystichum x bicknellii, the first record for the county, Wilson’s Filmy Fern (Hymenopyllum wilsonii) at several new localities in the north east, and both Beech Fern (Phegopteris connectilis) and Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris) were found to be more common than previously thought. The Narrow Buckler Fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) and the hybrid Dryopteris x deweveri were seen at both Talley and Llannon.
Other spring discoveries included some new localities for the Alternate Leaved Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium alternifolium) presumably much overlooked in the past, and the subspecies of Lesser Celandine with bulbils in the leaf axils (Ranunculus ficaria ssp. bulbifer) at both Talley and Maesybont - quite a different looking plant from the usual Celandine.
I think 1983 will be remembered as a very good year for orchids. At least 115 Bee Orchid plants were counted on Towyn Burrows in June - the most I can remember. Several new stations for Butterfly Orchids were noted. My attention was drawn to a churchyard near Nantgaredig which included in its old hay-meadow type flora, as well as Dactylorchids and a generally species-rich sward, forty three flowering spikes of Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha). This species was also seen in smaller numbers in Llansadwrn Churchyard. Both Greater and Lesser Butterfly Orchids (P. bifolia) were found to be abundant near Laugharne in some very fine, species-rich hay meadows which must rank as the best sites discovered this year.
The hot, dry July and August resulted in a rapid termination of the summer flowering season and the whole countryside became very parched. This was the condition of the hilltop on which was growing Dwarf Chickweed (Moenchia erecta) when I was shown it near Myddfai, presumably a rediscovery of Knight’s 1908 record, the only record for the county. Associated with it was a rich ephemeral flora forming a short, sheep-grazed sward.
The St. Clears meeting, at the height of the hot weather, was notable as more than 230 species were recorded from one tetrad during the afternoon, including Ivy-leaved Bellflower (Wahlenbergia hederacea), unusual so near the coast, and Swine’s Cress (Coronopus squamatus), also seen the previous day at Machynys: only the second and third vice-county records since c. 1860. Bulbous Foxtail (Alopecurus bulbosus) a Red-Data Book grass was found in the nearby upper Saltmarsh, complementing two other discoveries of this species earlier in the month at Laugharne and Llanstephan.
Other notable coastal species were recorded during visits to the Proof and Experimental Establishment at Pendine. Cyperus Sedge (Carex pseudocyperus) was found in fair abundance by the Witchett Pool, this being the first record for the county since Motley’s unlocalized record of c. 1850. Stiff Saltmarsh Grass (Puccinellia rupestris), as yet unconfirmed, is a new county record and Frosted Orache (Atriplex laciniata) the first post 1970 record. Two flowering plants of Frog Orchid (Coeloglossum viride) were found, the third vice county record and first since the fifties, and four or five Fen Orchids (Liparis loeselii) were seen this year, an increase on last year’s single specimen. The Greater Bladder¬wort (Utricularia vulgaris) was seen in flower in one of the drainage ditches for the first time at this locality since 1967 and I have had a report of a Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium) on the range, another first record since c. 1850 if it is confirmed.
NB. The PUCCIFELLIA has been subsequently re-determined as CATAPODIUM RIGIDUM (Fern Grass) – RDP
Another new county record is Muscari atlanticum, probably of garden origin, growing in a ride in Pembrey Forest.
When surveying the site of the proposed new Loughor Bridge a number of notable species were seen including one plant of Golden Samphire (Inula crithmoides), the fourth county record, and a few plants of Grass-leaved Orache (Atriplex littorale) among the more usual upper saltmarsh flora. At the top of the strand-line there was a great abundance of the Small Toadflax (Chaenorhinum minus).
I am greatly indebted to those recorders who have sent in records from which much of this account has been compiled, principally Messrs. Ian Morgan, and John Rees and also Nigel Stringer, Dick Davis, Ray Woods and Miss D. Holmes. I would now be glad to receive any further records from recorders, to be included in the county index, now that the season is drawing to a close.