BSBI Welsh AGM

From Carmarthenshire the next stop was Brecon, for the Welsh AGM. This was a great few days. I was joined by a few keen people on the Tuesday morning to visit Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, where we saw some treasures - from Asplenium viride (Green Spleenwort) which turned out to be very common in the area - to Antennaria dioica (Mountain Everlasting) - one of my particular plants of interest, which almost eluded us but turned up at the end of the day, close to where we had started.

Asplenium viride (Green Spleenwort)

Genista pilosa (Hairy Greenweed)

Antennaria dioica (Mountain Everlasting)

Two days later I found myself balancing along ledges high on the slopes of Cribin, in pursuit of the Attenborough's Hawkweed, along with Tim Rich, who found and named the new species. There was plenty else to see up there though. 

Ledge vegetation - Sedum rosea (Roseroot) in centre with Scabiosa columbaria (Small Scabious)

Tim Rich with the Hieracium Attenboroughianum (Attenborough's Hawkweed)

Back in Brecon there were excellent talks each evening - James Cresswell gave us a potted geological history of the Earth, illustrated by Brecknockshire; Mike Porter talked about the history of botanical recording in Brecknockshire (preceeded by a short talk from me about Welsh Rare Plant Registers) and Ray Woods talked about the conservation of plants and fungi - stressing the importance of good knowledge of our rare plants and fungi - and of joined-up thinking in terms of sharing the knowledge. 

There were a range of interesting exhibits including an impressive collection of live plants grown by Andy Shaw, some Hedge Brambles in Brecknockshire from Mike Porter, photographs from John Crellin illustrating the activity of the Brecknock Botany Recording Group and Brecknock Mistletoe records, some hybrids with missing parents from Andy Jones, and some details of the Polypodii of Flintshire by Martyn Stead. 

It was an impressively organised few days as ever, and the weather was remarkably good for a field meeting.