Tuesday 2 December 2014

November in Merioneth

Well, it was bound to happen one day! On 19th November I was quietly thinking that I must send out a reminder for the Merioneth Nats meeting on 27th , when I had an email from Polly, telling me that she hoped to be at the meeting the next day!!  I had slipped a week, so I had to decide at once to contact everyone, jump in the car and be 120 miles away in time to meet whoever turned up.
Actually, only Polly [and baby Robin] came, but it was lovely to see her and the new babe - people hadn't heard from me so they assumed the meeting wouldn't happen!  We met in the tea room in the village of Fron Goch and soon decamped to the caravan site at Tyn Cornel. We had a friendly welcome from Jean and Pete Tooth and permission to go wherever we wished around the site.

A routine sort of day but plenty of records and lovely weather, in an attractive area.  Although we were told that all the plantings were from seed gathered on site, there were obviously previous alien plantings as well and it was difficult to know where to stop recording.  There were alien conifers such as a young Cedrus atlantica, Atlas Cedar, and a cypress tentatively named as Chamaecyparis pisifera,Sawara Cypress, with squarrose leaves and a strong fruity odour.


Rosa arvensis, Field-rose



This abundantly fruiting rose was quite clearly the native Rosa arvensis, Field-rose, but there were others which approached Rosa canina but were obviously not quite right.

We were pleased to have added 111 new records to a "virgin" tetrad - it made all the travelling well worth while!



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