First Week Hunt 2009 - 6th March Cwm Idwal and Great Orme
Having seen the snow clad hills from Llandudno West Shore on March 4th, I wondered if the severe weather would have had an effect on the earliest flowering alpine plant in these mountains. Alpine plants don't actually mind the bad weather and only the most extreme conditions usually put them off their usual flowering period. That's the theory but as I walked by Llyn Idwal in the biting wind it seemed an impossible hope. At first I found a rock with plants in bud and then after gingerly stepping over snow covered cracks and fissure found Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple Saxifrage - above photos) in full flower at its expected time of flowering. Alpines really don't mind the cold what they don't much like is neighbours.
On the same rock as the Saxifrage was a Huperzia selago ( Fir Clubmoss - above left) but this one was bearing worn winter clothes with only a hint of a new green Spring outfit. Tryfan (Above middle), the mountain nearest the main road, looked both magnificent and forbidding with the occasional patch of blue sky surrounding the summit which was soon lost in cloud. This trip was exactly what you might expect at this time of year - cold with wind and flurries of snow. On the way home I dropped in at the Great Orme and checked the Brachyglottis "Sunshine" (Shrub Ragwort above right) at Deganwy. In people's gardens this was in flower but this naturalised shrub had only one or two very tatty flowers.
It's a bit of a hike to the best spot for the rare Hornungia petraea (Hutchinsia above left and middle) on the Great Orme but this Spring ephemeral is a very early flowerer and will be gone without trace by the end of April. There were plenty of flowering plants at this site and just one Saxifraga tridactylites (Rue-leaved Saxifrage above right) with buds only.
The snowy covered hills (Glyder Fach on right in cloud and lower slopes of Tryfan on the left above) had attracted many walkers and quite a few Geography Field trips. I was reminded as I watched the shocked, cold faces of secondary school pupils how the weather in the hills, even just a short way from the road, is considerably worse than you can imagine and I was grateful for having over-done the winter clothing with hat, hood, gloves, many layers and a thick jacket.
Tomorrow (7th March 2009) I will be showing a few keen botanists some of the flowers of Anglesey and hope that the predicted temperature of a roasting 10 Celsius will bring a few more into flower. This is the end of my First Week Hunt and not including the ones in bud like Hippophae rhamnoides and Saxifraga tridactylites I saw seventy plants in flower. The seventieth was not photographed because it was on grassy bank on the A55 as we stopped for road works. A single Primula veris (Cowslip) had pushed its first flower into the world making me think that real Spring weather might not be too far away.
Postscript: The 7th March 2009 meeting has now taken place and the extra pairs of eyes also spotted Silene dioica (Red Campion), Valerianella carinata (Keel-fruited Corn-salad) and Veronica polita (Grey Field- speedwell) in spite of the wind and rain.