Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - September 2007 - No 73
Simeon Jones

The harbour walls of the West Dock support an unusually rich diversity of wild flowers. This is partly because of the industrial history of the harbour and also because of the rocky substrate that is similar to sea cliffs. New interpretative boards have been erected by Carmarthenshire County Council in order to bring the importance of the area to the notice and appreciation of visitors and, in particular, local people and stake-holders. 

Small-flowered Catchfly is found along the top of the wall. It is only found at this one location in Carmarthenshire and it is thought that these plants were brought in with ships’ ballast returning from Portugal when the harbour was used to export coal.  Specialist plants of sea cliffs include rock samphire and rock sea-lavender.  Rock samphire was formerly used as a wild vegetable especially in pickles and the rock sea-lavender, like its larger relative, common sea lavender, used to be sold as everlasting blooms or ‘lucky white heather’.

Two plants that were introduced by the Romans include alexanders and fennel.  Alexanders was used as an all-purpose spring vegetable and tonic. It can also be found growing around old monasteries and castles such as at Kidwelly where it was cultivated whilst today it has a marked preference for sites close to the sea where it is frequently found along roadsides. The leaves of Fennel are widely used in cooking especially with oily fish.

Danish scurvygrass is found growing along the top of the wall. The related common scurvygrass which is also found growing in coastal habitats, has leaves which are high in Vitamin C and was used by Captain Cook in the prevention of scurvy on board ship.  Further colour is added by the white flowers of bladder campion and the attractive ferny foliage and golden flowers of tansy make it a colourful plant of summer whilst it was used as a herbal remedy for ‘phlegm and worms.’  Round-leaved crane’s-bill also commonly grows along the dock walls and is another plant rarely found elsewhere in the county.  A few plants of Pyramidal Orchid usually appear each year: this is a species more characteristically associated with the dry sand dunes of Pembrey Burrows and Country Park.

The dock walls are carefully managed to protect these plants for future generations to enjoy as well as protecting the cultural heritage of Burry Port.

Editor’s Note: The local councillors acknowledge the site’s biodiversity value but continue to get complaints if the grassland is not cut like a lawn and all weeds trashed.  If you feel that the plantlife deserves a better chance, it would be well worth you writing to the local councillors or Isabel Macho, the Council’s Biodiversity Officer, in order to voice the opposite view.