2020 County Report for Carmarthenshire

Richard & Kath Pryce

Recording was much reduced in 2020 due to the Covid situation.  The VCRs only collected 7 Taraxacum specimens compared with around 170 in the previous few years as lockdown prevented getting out into the field for most of the dandelion season. The Glynhir recording week scheduled in July was cancelled.  The VCR took the opportunity to progress the revision of the RPR and production of the county flora.

The exception was Ian Morgan’s 'daily exercise' walks during which he recorded weeds and aliens in the streets and back-lanes of Llanelli and other urban areas in the SE of the VC.  He made several first VC records (see below).  He also found many self-sown plants of Cordyline australis at numerous new sites in pavements and on old walls, a species for which Llanelli seems to have become notable.  Regarding native species, he discovered a small but robust colony of Orobanche minor growing close to the level-crossing at the east end of Llanelli railway station SS5099, a species has declined as the brownfield sites on which it had found a stronghold in the town, have been redeveloped.

Theresa Greenaway also did some valuable recording in her home district near Felingwm SN52, an area visited by few other botanists.  Included among her numerous records was Hypericum × desetangsii, the first record for the hectad since 1993, and a species list from a hitherto unrecorded species-rich rhôs-pasture which included the first recent localized tetrad records of Trocdaris (Carum) verticillata, Lythrum tenella and Hydrocotyle vulgaris.