First Week Hunt 2009 - 4th March The Great Orme West Shore

The journey towards The Great Orme had produced quite a few good plants but even more were to be found at this remarkable site which seems to have its own micro climate. On the beach Cochlearia officinalis (Common Scurvygrass - above left) was one of the few plants flowering but on the wall its second cousin Cochlearia danica (Danish Scurvygrass above middle, the plant which has colonised so much of the central reservations of our dual carriage ways and motorways was just beginning to flower. At the bottom of the wall was the first spike of Poa Annua (Annual Meadow-grass - above right) which is usually common at all times of year but which i had not noticed until now.

Also on the wall was a Bellis perennis (Daisy - above left) in full flower and on the sands a patch of Stellaria media (Chickweed - above right) with flowers basking in the mid day sun. Examining a site where I have found good plants in the past there appeared to be nothing in flower until I caught sight a a glimpse of yellow from a patch of Hippocrepis comosa (Horseshoe Vetch - above middle). I was amazed at this find. A proper flowering stem on new growth this year - quite impossible I would have said.

Hippocrepis comosa does not flower in March but there is a great deal to be found so perhaps nature will always provide one precocious plant for botanists who seek early flowers. This suggested that there might be other unlikely flowering plants so I walked along the cliff road of the West Shore and found (not to my surprise because it is an early plant) the easily overlooked Stellaria pallida (Lesser Chickweed - above right) which only rarely has any petals. On the cliffs there are patches of well naturalised introductions but I was again very surprised to find a flower on the Anthemis punctata ssp cupaniana (Sicilian Chamomile - above middle) which I thought had half its petals missing but which actually has them folded down out of sight.

On the sea wall facing the gales and salt spray a fine clump of Aubrieta deltoidea (Aubretia above left) basked in the sun and ignored the wind and up on the cliffs out of camera reach a large clump of Rosemarinus officinalis (Rosemary - not shown on this page) was in full flower. However I knew of a more accessible plant growing out of a wall and waited for that photo. At the bottom of a very high wall were two clumps of Tristagma uniflorum (Spring Starflower- above middle and right) which is not unknown on the Great Orme but which I had not found on the West Shore cliffs before.

Further along, growing out of a wall was some Allium triquetrum (Three-cornered Leek - above left) and at the bottom of that wall another four or more plants were also in flower. They had escaped from the garden above but any plant growing in a wall is safe to include in Wild Flower list as you will know if you have tried and failed to plant things in walls. The owner of the garden who has been trying to get rid of the Allium triquetrum explained why flowers were early: they have had only one frost and a single flurry of snow all winter on this West Shore. In the dunes of the West shore near to the Golf Course, the annual Veronica hederifolia ssp hederifolia (Ivy-leaved Speedwell - above right) was in full flower. Nearby the first flowers on a Fumaria officinalis (Common Fumitory) were just showing.

I was sure to find Hebe x franciscana (Hedge Veronica) in the Dunes on the way back but for the very first time ever there were no flowers to be found. Veronica persica (Common Field Speedwell above middle) was in the grass with flowers fully open and the long purple stems of Salix acutifolia (Siberian Violet Willow - above left) was showing a few catkins but not many. The many bushed of Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn - above right) had fat brown buds and some had begun to open but however carefully I examine the opening buds no anthers or stigmas could be found so this is not on the list.

Having patrolled most of the West Shore sites it was time for lunch and as I sat in the sunshine watching the Mute Swans on the Llandudno Mere (actually the Paddling Pool), with the glistening, snow-capped mountains of the Glyders in the background listening to Yundi Li make easy work of the last movement of Chopin's B minor piano sonata, I thought there might be harder ways to pass the time of day. After lunch it would be time to climb the Orme itself.