Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Tristan_He on September 24, 2015, 10:27:56 PM
-
Tim Ingram's post mentioning the Snowdon Lily on another thread reminded me of Cwm Idwal, one of the best Arctic-alpine locations in Snowdonia. There is a nice litte video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz3_ArvG1sg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz3_ArvG1sg)
Also if you want to see what I get up to when I'm not posting on this forum, here is another little video about some really fabulous lakes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSIsGYOKqdM&feature=youtu.be&a= (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSIsGYOKqdM&feature=youtu.be&a=)
-
Thank you for showing those Tristan. They are so well presented and clear and it makes me wish we didn't live so far away from such wonderful and interesting landscapes. I think also its a great example of the value of this Forum and the Scottish Rock Garden Club and looking at landscapes in true detail. I learned a lot from watching them.
-
That brings back memories! I did some field work at Cwm Idwal (and many other sites through Snowdonia) during my undergraduate study. I've not been back since, and how it's changed! A joy to see these videos, thank you. I must visit again.
-
Good countryside. A bit flat here apart from the pit tips. Perhaps in a thousand years they might improve?
-
Yesterday we finally got around to doing something I have never quite managed to do in more than 15 years living in Wales... go out to look for purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) in flower. You know how it is when something is nearby, it can always be done another time and so never quite gets done at all.
Globally this is a common plant as alpines go but here in Wales it is quite scarce, being found only on a few of our less acid mountain-tops as an Arctic-alpine relict species. It's one of my favourite garden plants. The Cwm Idwal population is quite accessible but is still a little climb up from Llyn Idwal, the lake.
[attachimg=1]
At least two other saxifrages grow here as well. I think this is Saxifraga stellaris.
[attachimg=2]
View down to Llyn Idwal, a shallow nutrient-poor lake with clear water and a nice plant community.
[attachimg=3]
The purple saxifrage grows in a field of massive limestone blocks just below the crack in the cliff known as the Devils Kitchen.
[attachimg=4]
My first sighting of purple saxifrage in the wild.
[attachimg=5]
...and now in flower!
-
Some more photos of flowering purple saxifrage. Although this is quite a small and isolated population, I was quite surprised by the amount of variation.
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=4]
[attachimg=3]
-
Great photos, Tristan! They remind me to try to find a free day (haha!) to get out on our own local mountains before too long.
-
We also saw some other interesting things. Another familiar friend, Saxifraga hypnoides, not in flower yet of course.
[attachimg=1]
Cwm Idwal is one of the wettest places in the UK with 4000mm of rain typical, so some nice bryophytes and ferns. I rather liked this natural moss garden on a boulder - anyone know their bryophytes? The fern is Asplenium trichomanes.
[attachimg=2]
Something I hadn't seen before - though it is reasonably frequent in Snowdonia - is filmy fern. These plants need constant high humidity. I think this is Wilson's filmy fern, Hymenophyllum wilsonii.
[attachimg=3]
Looking up the boulder field to the Devil's Kitchen (in Welsh Twll Du which means black hole). This narrow cleft in the cliff emits steam sometimes apparently (presumably high humidity on a warm day) and it is said the Devil is then cooking in his 'kitchen'.
[attachimg=4]
Another spleenwort, this time green spleenwort Asplenium viride - new to me.
[attachimg=5]
We plan to make another trip later in the year to try to spot some of the other species that grow here, such as moss campion and perhaps even Snowdon lily (though I understand this is quite inaccessible).
-
Great photos, Tristan! They remind me to try to find a free day (haha!) to get out on our own local mountains before too long.
Thanks Matt. I dare say there is a good deal more to see in Scotland too, Wales is a real outpost for alpines, sadly. I also wonder how much of an effect acidification had on our upland plants.
-
Excellent photos Tristan. I love Cwm Idwal. I'm shortly taking a group of NGO and statutory land managers and conservationists from the Lake District to inspire them about this site and showing that doing the right thing (getting heavy sheep grazing off) can have some huge benefits for our native upland alpine flora. I'm hoping we can roll out this approach on a few key sites in the Lakes over the next couple of years.
I know what you mean about getting out on local sites. I live close to Ingleborough but spectacularly fail most years of late to get up looking for Sax oppositifolia at flowering time, despite having it in full bloom now on the scree bed outside the front door hinting at me!
-
What a good idea Dave and best of luck. I presume you are already in touch with Hywel Roberts?
-
Tristan - Cwm Idwal rocks! Beautiful landscapes, and so nice to see S. oppositifolia in flower. I never get to catch it in flower in the Carpathians and here grows too far up north. Also a very nice collection of ferns - the filmy fern is completely new for me, have to google about it.
No monsters in those pretty lakes you study? ??? :D
-
Wonderful pictures Tristan! I wonder how an earth we manage to grow Saxifraga oppositifolia here (admittedly not too well) with only around 600-700mm of rain annually?! Actually Asplenium ceterach and A. trichomanes also grow quite well in the sand bed with some irrigation in the driest periods but I would definitely prefer the landscape to go with them!!
-
Most interesting, Tristan! The landscape of Wales is completely unknown to me except from a few pictures.
I hope you find the Snowdon Lily. It is not known from Norway although it should have grown here :)
-
Tristan - Cwm Idwal rocks! Beautiful landscapes, and so nice to see S. oppositifolia in flower. I never get to catch it in flower in the Carpathians and here grows too far up north. Also a very nice collection of ferns - the filmy fern is completely new for me, have to google about it.
No monsters in those pretty lakes you study? ??? :D
We certainly enjoyed it Gabriela. I've seen the photos of this species from the Arctic Circle though where it looks to be really spectacular.
We have quite a nice range of hyperoceanic bryophytes and ferns here in Wales - basically things that need constantly wet conditions. There is some suggestion that some of them don't disperse much at the moment because the climate is too dry! Sort of 'Atlantis relicts'. Many of the same species also occur in western Scotland.
We have the same number of monsters as in Scotland ;D
There are one or two myths and legends but none really seems to have caught the imagination. See for example here:
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/wales/gwynedd/folklore/lake-bala.html (http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/wales/gwynedd/folklore/lake-bala.html) and here:
http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/lake-bala-creature-sightings.html (http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/lake-bala-creature-sightings.html)
and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanc)
-
Wonderful pictures Tristan! I wonder how an earth we manage to grow Saxifraga oppositifolia here (admittedly not too well) with only around 600-700mm of rain annually?! Actually Asplenium ceterach and A. trichomanes also grow quite well in the sand bed with some irrigation in the driest periods but I would definitely prefer the landscape to go with them!!
I think Saxifraga oppositifolia really doesn't like being dried out or being baked in summer Tim. Even in Snowdonia it tends to grow in north facing locations and / or on the north side of boulders. The microclimate is really critical though - I reckon I have about double the rainfall you get and I have lost purple sax growing in a southerly aspect. But it is very easy to grow (and flowers well) tucked in a shady crevice with a northerly aspect. The 30 tonne boulders do add a certain something though don't they!
Asplenium ceterach and A. trichomanes both grow happily in an old mortar wall near my parents house in Devon, so these really don't particularly high rainfall. I've not found them easy to establish though (at least not by transplanting).
-
Asplenium ceterach, rusty back fern, in my dry-stone wall. The only concern is hot dry weather, when they curl up and look "crispy." A good watering soon picks them up again. img. 1010117. There is a soil bank behind the "wall" which plants can root into from the front of the wall. Getting the plants to survive the first year is the hardest part. Keep watering them for at least a year to get them established, as with all plants, is the best thing. There is a layer of soil between the stones, just like a dry mortar.
-
While not a native plant, Ramondas do well in similar situations as Ian's Asplenium ceterach, also getting frighteningly "crispy" in hot dry weather, but reviving with water - my point being to reiterate that it is worth making an effort to establish plants in such places.
-
I remember seeing lots of Asplenium ceterach in a wall next to the car park in Beddgelert (and wonderful lichens on the trees alongside the river), and A. trichomanes next to the Cathedral at Dunblane in Scotland. These small rock ferns are delightful, would really like to grow more of them.
-
Thanks for the links Tristan. The legends always make for interesting reads :)
-
Many years ago I had my introduction to rock climbing in Cwm Idwal on the famous Idwal slabs (Faith, Hope and Charity). I've never managed to find any Gagea (=Lloydia) serotina on the ledges, but I did once find Saxifraga caespitosa.
[attachimg=1 align=left width=400]
-
Hello Robert, it is one of the few alpines I have not seen in the wild. Easy to grow from seed though.
-
Hello Robert, it is one of the few alpines I have not seen in the wild. Easy to grow from seed though.
Ian, if you really want to see Saxifraga cespitosa you should visit Svalbard ;)
Here are a few examples:
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
[attachimg=4]
[attachimg=5]
-
Nice pictures Trond. I know where it is in Scotland but it is a long hike and an overnight camp, to see it.
-
Dear Ian and Trond,
Nice photos - I've never seen it like that !
I have some seed potted up from last year's seed exchange but still waiting !
Robert
-
Hello Robert, I also grew it from exchange seed. It flowered for several years then I lost it. It may be too dry in this area.