Caerdeon Botanical Residential for Meirionnydd (VC48)

Sunday 28th of July

Martyn Stead, Sally Peacock and I headed for the empty quarter of the Arenigs on Sunday. We were looking at two very unrecorded tetrads on the South East side of Arenig Fawr. We traversed across part of Ffridd y Fawnogg noting typical species such as Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus), some of which bore nearly ripe fruit - not quite ripe enough for a snack though!

Sally found Shoreweed (Litorella uniforme) in the reservoir but it's wave-lashed shores seemed to discourage the development of more fringing vegetation.

Once we had ascended the SE ridge of Y Castell, the broad ledges I could safely reach were not particularly species rich, although there was plentiful Luzula sylvatica (Great Wood Rush). We entered the new tetrad at around 660m  and as we crested the top of this slope we found windswept areas rich in Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Cowberry) with the odd patch of Melampyrum pratense (Common Cow-wheat). There were also some significant patches of the Lichen Lasallia pustulata

I scoured a small area of rock carpeting sphagnum until I eventually spotted some Drosera rotundifolia  (Round-leaved sundew), however the wet weather had really set in now so we didn't press on to the summit. This could still be an area worth prospecting in the future though. We took the easier route back via the track and road and this enabled Martyn to add to the list of road-verge species for another tetrad . Meanwhile Sally and I took a last look at a different corner of Ffridd y Fawnogg bog in homage to International Peat bog day.