Book Availability

In a recent post we told you of a new book Footpints in the Sands of Time telling the fascinating Life story of Colonel Morrey Salmon

A couple of updates to this are that there is a review of the book in the latest edition of Nature Cymru magazine by Well known Welsh ornithologist David Saunders, and we've also been told that the book is on-sale in the National Museum of Wales bookshop in Cathays Park so if you want to browse a copy it's now possible to get your hands on a copy more easily

We also still have copies of some of our society and May Gillham's publications - if you want to contact us you can see what's there by looking at the Publications Order Form

Regards
Andy

Wenvoe

Members of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, led by Bruce McDonald, strolled down the lanes around Wenvoe to see the hedgerow flora yesterday evening. An interesting range of plants were identified, including the Spiked Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum). This is its only established site in Wales, and flowering spikes were observed along a length of verge:

Coryton Orchid in Flower

Regarding the post made recently about the unusual orchid at Coryton roundabout I made a return visit to see if the mystery orchid had flowered this lunch time and here it is in it's full glory. 

It is indeed looking like " Common Spotted Orchid Var.rhodochila" ! 

Rhian

Unusual Orchid at Coryton

Regualr readers of our newsletters will remember the highlights that we've found on the Coryton Roundabout Nature reserve

This very unusual place in the middle of the largest roundabout in Wales has turned out to be one of the riches places we've surveyed and keeps throwing up surprises every time we visit.

What with Long Winged forms of Short Winged Conheads some years ago, and now Common Spotted Orchid Var.rhodochila being found and confirmed it's a waiting game to find out what is next.

We had wonderful sights of the Bee orchids and the white form of the Common Spotted Orchids around the roundabout this year as well as the usual sightings of the Twayblade and the Broad Leaved Helleborines.

Hybrids abounded with many Common Spotted / Southern Marsh crosses, and we found the Pyramidal as well, but for unusual, a candidate from this year's walk is this specimen which was unfortunalty not yet in flower, but had such vibrant purple leaves that it stood out from the surrounding specimens quite clearly

The upper leaves show some blotchyness reminiscent of the Common Spotted Orchid, but the lower leaves are almost completely purple

But their undersides are green

If anyone can shed any light on this and whether it's truly as unusual as those of us on the walk felt it was, we would be pleased to hear from you via email or simply add a comment to this posting

Regards
Andy

Mutant Foxglove

Hi all,

thought you may be interested in the attached photograph. It's the top flower of a Foxglove spike in our garden .In fact we have three other Foxglove plants in the garden all showing the same aberration.

Anyone out there have any ideas as to the cause?