First Week Hunt 2009 - March 4th En Route to The Great Orme

The first stop in North Wales is usually very good for first hunt flowers with plants like Erodium cicutarium (Common Stork's-bill) and Erophila verna (Common Whitlowgrass) in abundance. This year the persistent frosts had left it very bare and wintry looking but the true early flowers of Myosotis ramosissima (Early Forget-me-not - above left and right photos) were there in an abundance not seen before. Perhaps the lack of other vegetation allowed them access to the sunlight. So far no Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion - middle) had been found and only this very sad looking specimen was in flower here.

One of the commonest sights usually at this stop (Shotton) on the way to the Great Orme is many different yellow crucifers which need careful attantion to make a good identification. This year there was one very small Brassica rapa (Turnip - above middle Photo and nothing else even in bud. There was only one plant of Senecio vulgaris (Groundsel -left photo) too which is usually easy to find. Driving along the coast road many years ago I suddenly spied a huge patch of white and found a lay by to stop so it could be investigated. There was a a marshy ground and plenty of Chrysosplenium oppositifolium (Opposite-leaved Golden Saxigrage - above right) which was there this time as well.

The white patch turned our to be Petasites albus (White Butterbur - above left) and this year there were four huge patches with more than two hundred plants altogether. This is a very early plant and will start in January or February in a mild winter. Because of the cold winter this time it was at its peak. Nearer to The Great Orme, which was the destination for the day, a quarry at Llandulas usually yields something interesting and apart from some excellent Taxus baccata (Yew - above middle photo) there were four naturalised Vibernum tinuss (Laurustinus - above right photo) shrbs in full flower.