2022 County Report for Carmarthenshire

Richard & Kath Pryce

• Rediscovery of Liparis loeselii, last seen in vc44 in 2002.
• Monitored Persicaria minor and seed collected for the Welsh Seed Bank at NBGW
• NCR of large population of Cotula coronopifolia
• Numerous new records of other non-natives
• Very sobering is the fact that most species targeted for monitoring  were not refound, despite observers being able to return to the precise sites where they had previously been recorded (mostly in the 1980s and early 1990s).  A number of factors are likely to have contributed to their demise, probably most significantly, atmospheric pollution, closely followed by habitat management changes and habitat loss due to either neglect or agricultural improvement.  Our findings are symptomatic of the, at-last recognised, ‘Nature Emergency’ that our wildlife is facing which appears to becoming more severe at an ever-increasing rate.
• c.220 Taraxacum specimens sent to John Richards for determination produced 6 NCRs bringing the total no. of Taraxacum spp. recorded in vc44 to about 154.
• c 15,400 plant records from c.1,500 sites/target note locations comprising of c.1,060 species were recorded during the year but inputting is not yet completed.
• More details of all these and many other records are, or will be available in reports written for the BSBI Yearbook, BSBI Welsh Bulletin, Welsh Plant Records, BSBI News, British Wildlife, Carmarthenshire Nature Partnership and Llanelli Naturalists.