2024 County Report for Merionethshire

Jo Clark & Heather Garrett

The majority of records are collected during field visits across the vice-county by members of the Meirionnydd Naturalists’ Group. Our programme of ten visits a year tries to encompass a range of habitats and locations to appeal to the wide interests of the group. We also receive records from visiting botanists.

In 2024, we visited a range of sites from grasslands and valley mires to woodland and coastal sites, all of which are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The land ownerships are a mix of private, charitable environmental and public sector bodies. Around 1500 records were collected, and the more interesting ones include:

Asplenium septentrionale (Forked Spleenwort), Carex extensa (Long-bract sedge), Carex magellanica (Tall Bog-sedge), Carex limosa (Bog sedge), Chara virgata (Delicate stonewort), Crassula tillaea (Mossy stonecrop), Drosera intermedia (Oblong-leaved sundew), Eleocharis quinqueflora (Few flowered spike rush), Equisetum variegatum (Variegated horsetail), Euphrasia × difformis (an eyebright hybrid), Orobanche hederae (Ivy broomrape), Oxyria dignya (Mountain sorrel), Hypericum undulatum (Wavy St. John’s wort), Pilularia globulifera (Pillwort), Platanthera bifolia (Lesser Greater-butterfly orchid), Phegopteris connectilis (Beech fern), Ranunculus sceleratus (Celery-leaved buttercup), Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani (Gray club-rush), Selaginella selaginoides (Lesser club-moss), Thalictrum alpinum (Alpine meadow-rue)

We have been assisting the Priority Plants Project on SSSI in Wales by advising Alastair Hotchkiss on historic records and locations. We have also done some field investigations and intend to support the project during the 2025 field season.