'Stanley's' Fleabane in Burry Port

With no formally adopted vernacular, I've taken the liberty to create one myself of an interesting hybrid encountered whilst surveying an area of crushed concrete at the former Carmarthen Bay Power Station, immediately east of Burry Port Harbour. Initially it appeared to me to be Conyza, but not a species I could name using standard keys, so I sent photographs to a number of eminent local botanists, including Tim Rich who came to the fore and said it was a generic hybrid between Erigeron acris (Blue Fleabane) and Conyza floribunda (Bilbao's Fleabane). It eventually transpired this taxon was only recently described as X Conyzigeron x stanleyi by Tony Mundell, who named it after the finder Paul Stanley, adding that 'Paul sent me a note saying he felt honoured by the new name and added that his wife Steph thought it appropriate ‘being a scruffy plant of unglamorous locations’'. It seems likely this reasonably distinctive hybrid is not as rare as the handful of records might indicate, especially as C. floribunda is now so widespread and abundant, including many areas where it crosses swords with E.acris. So it is one to look wherever both parents are present. The dark pink heads and larger size of the hybrid are likely to attracted attention, although the intermediate characters are perhaps more subtle. The sterile seeds are a key indicator that should be examined, these looking withered and without substance.

One final note, in the upcoming fourth edition of Stace, the genus Conyza has been re-amalgamated with Erigeron so the hybrid now becomes Erigeron x stanleyi.