2021 County Report for Breconshire

John Crellin and Mike Porter

The Brecknock Botany Group was very active this year – in many cases without the presence of their recorder and returning records such as new-for-hectad Erigeron acris (Blue Fleabane) from practically unexplored places.

The focus has been on recently neglected areas, one being the far north west of the county on the old road into Ceredigion near the source of the Afon Tywi where we found Carex montana (Soft-leaved Sedge) where the road exits the county. In the same weekend we found very large (and colour-varied) population of Viola lutea (Mountain Violet) near Abergwesyn.

Explorations of wet woodland near Llangorse Lake produced several good records including Carex × prolixa (Carex acuta × elata).

A visit to our only site for Carex limosa (Bog-sedge) (discovered by B Stewart in the early 2000s) on Llangattock mountain was educational (we hadn’t seen it before) and yielded a new for hectad record with Vaccinium oxycoccos (Cranberry).

In October a friend of a group member (not yet botany-smitten) discovered a population of Lycopodium clavatum (Stag’s Horn Clubmoss) on an upland common. Whereas records for such habitats were relatively frequent many years ago it is now rare to find this in them. This was a new find for the hectad. The population turned out to be very abundant over at least a hectare.

Members of the group are helping to organise and run a surveying project for the Penpont estate which is aiming for changes in practice to encourage biodiversity.