04 August 2012

Round-leaved Wintergreen



Mark Hipkin recently found a new population of Round-leaved Wintergreen (Pyrola rotundifolia ssp. maritima) for Neath Port Talbot at the species rich Panasonic site in Sandfields, where this plant was photographed yesterday. Other interesting plants at this site include Brown Sedge (Carex disticha), Pink Water-speedwell (Veronica catenata) and Hoary Ragwort (Senecio erucifolius), which are all uncommon in the county. There’s also a large population of Flattened Meadow-grass (Poa compressa) here plus an interesting maritime mixture of Sea Club-rush (Bolboschoenus maritimus), Lesser Centaury (Centaurium  pulchellum) and Sea-milkwort (Glaux maritima). Unfortunately, over the last 12 years the amount of willow scrub and Common Reed (Phragmites australis) on the site has increased greatly and now Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is also invading at an alarming rate.
In some ways this site is a mini snapshot of what Baglan Moors must have looked like 100 years ago and deserves to be conserved with appropriate management accordingly.

3 comments:

Paul Roberts said...

This post prompted me to check out the location at Llanilid where I discovered a population of this species several years ago. Good numbers were present this morning, albeit in a very confined area. A new housing estate has sprung up about 100m away and i wouldn't be surprised if they disappear under a bulldozer before too long.
For anyone interested the grid reference is SS 99702 82098.

Charles Hipkin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charles Hipkin said...

Paul,
That is a very notable record and I hope the population can be saved. Given the priority species status of Round-leaved Wintergreen in Wales, shouldn't the local authority ecologists be made aware of this. Inland populations of this species are of great biological interest and significant conservation importance.