Scarce Plants of the Elan Valley
Perhaps it is unsurprising that the Elan Valley Estate is a refuge for a significant number of scarce plants. Given that there is a requirement for the Elan Valley reservoirs to supply the local communities in Wales and the city of Birmingham with fresh water of the highest quality, plus the fact that agrochemical inputs to the farmed land are minimal, scarce and rare plants have the potential to thrive here.
The reservoirs themselves are not botanically rich, apart from perhaps the margins of Dolymynach reservoir where Bladderwort was recently recorded by Ray Woods. However, the four remote oligotrophic llyns hold many of Elan’s scarcities like Floating Water-plantain and Water Lobelia. Elsewhere, there are rich, upland fringe meadows with quite unique assemblages of species which include Wood Bitter-vetch; fen meadows with Fragrant Orchid and Globeflower; temperate rainforest with rare lichens like Tree Lungwort and peat bogs with frequent Bog Rosemary and Round-leaved Sundew. Both Bog and Tall Bog Sedge have been recorded here too.
The remote lakes: Llyn Cerrigllwydion, Llyn Gynon, Llyn Carw and Llyn Gwyngu, given their low nutrient content, hold much of the Elan Valley’s botanical interest but each require a day’s trek over arduous terrain. Those with an interest in botany will be rewarded by the aquatic plants but also by the great beauty of the lakes.
Besides the water-plantain and lobelia, there is Quillwort – a type of fern, Floating Bur-reed, Alternate Water-milfoil and in Llyn Gwngu, rafts of Yellow Water-lily. Six-stemmed Water-wort and Lesser Bladderwort could still be present in the lakes too.
The upland fringe meadows of the Elan Valley are quite unique in a Welsh context for their species assemblages and the fact that there are so many of them. The meadows form part of the in-bye, the enclosed land around the farmsteads. Penglaneinon is one of the six in-hand Elan Valley Trust farms and includes the Coronation Meadow which is part of a complex of SSSI meadows. Wood Bitter-vetch is frequent here along with Great Burnet and Greater Butterfly-orchid. Mountain Pansy grows in places in the meadow but hundreds grow in a nearby steep pasture. Amongst the rarer flowers in the meadows are more common species like Betony, the bright-blue form of Heath Milkwort and yellow Rough Hawkbit, giving an overall effect of intense colour and species-richness.
On a farm with damper meadows higher up the valley, the large buttercup-like Globeflower grows amongst Fragrant Orchids, Saw-wort and Meadow Thistles. The pastures here are a vibrant yellow with Mountain Pansy in early summer and then jewel-studded with diverse waxcaps in late autumn. Still further up the valley is a meadow with hundreds of Southern Marsh-orchids in most years during summertime.
Above the Elan Village is Cnwch Wood, one of the numerous stands of Celtic rainforest in the valley. These are all sessile oak woodlands or wood pastures rich in bryophytes, lichens and ferns. Oak Fern thrives in substantial patches throughout Cnwch and there is one stand of Hay-scented Bucker-fern. Mountain Male-fern grows nearby in a steep quarry above the most southern of the reservoirs and dams and Small Cudweed is frequent on the quarry floor. Old records for Lesser Twayblade exist above the quarry.
Fiona Gomersall, Elan Valley Trust Ecologist