Despite a much less than pleasant weather forecast, I met Georgina and Martyn at Acton Park in Wrexham to begin our attempt at the New Year Plant Hunt.
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Plant Hunt Selfie!
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The rain stayed away for a few hours; we found a number of plants around the edges of the park and the surrounding area. Can anyone help identify this garden marigold wandering into Acton Park?
After a lunch break we decided to move on a bit to the Wrexham Industrial estate, which did indeed provide more variety; including four species of Vicia (tetrasperma, cracca, hirsuta and sativa; also Medicago lupulina and arabica) and also Euronymus europaeus. By the end we had totted up 57 species, not a record for Wales but satisfying nevertheless. The top family was unsurprisingly Asteraceae with 14 species; second place more surprisingly was Fabaceae with 7 and third was Brassicaceae with 6. We also found four grasses open and flowering (Poa annua, Arrhenatherum elatius, Dactylis glomerata and Lolium perenne). My photos are not up to much but here is a selection as a collage...
For more information or to take part in your own New Year Plant Hunt (up to the 4th Jan) see BSBI News and Views.
Other Welsh hunts have been Tim Rich with 59 species in Cardiff; John Warren with 27 in Aberystwyth, and a whopping 67 in the Chepstow area from the Monmouthshire Botany Group.
