Welsh Journals

FIELD NOTES PLANTS (In future, Field Notes on Plants will be compiled by T. A. W. DAVIS, South Mullock, Haverfordwest, Pembs. Records and notes should be sent either to the appropriate B.S.B.I. County Recorder or to T.A.W.D. Records sent to T.A.W.D. will be passed to the Recorders and will be considered for publication on their recommendation. Space is limited for Field Notes and records which are not published are of value as additions to Recorders' card indices they may be used later. Records will normally not be acknowledged by T.A.W.D. except by request.) Spiranthes spiralis at Dale, Pembrokeshire In August 1966, S. E. Arney reported that Autumn Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes spiralis) were flowering abundantly above West- dale Bay. They were growing in very short, cattle-grazed turf on a steep, south-facing slope with shallow stony soil on Old Red Sand- stone, in quantity over about half an acre and frequently over another half acre, their upper limit a brake of Gorse (Ulex europaeus), the lower where the grass was a little longer as the slope moderated. Species associated with the orchids included Heath Milkwort (Polygala serpyllifolia), Purging Flax (Linum catharticum), Rest Harrow (Ononis repens), Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea), an Eye- bright (Euphrasia occidentalis) and Thyme (Thymus drucei). J. H. Barrett estimated that there were about a thousand plants, not an over-estimate. There were many patches of about a dozen spikes with some closer bunches of two to four, apparently rising from the same stock. On 26th August 1967, I found almost if not quite as many flower spikes as in 1966 but on 9th September when J. W. Dono- van went there to take a photograph he could not find a single plant. On 28th September I searched the whole area without finding one spike. It was evident that all had been grazed by cattle. The field is a permanent pasture and from its nature must have been so for a very long time. In both the years concerned there was a period in August when it was ungrazed. Store cattle were in it on 3rd August 1966 but by the 21st had been removed. On 26th August 1967 there was none, but by 9th September, cattle were back in it and had apparently grazed the Ladies' Tresses selectively. This large population must have been long established but I have not found an earlier record of it a single plant was found by J. S. Ryland not far away in 1959 (George 1961). It seems likely the site has escaped notice because in most years the spikes are grazed as they develop. That Autumn Ladies' Tresses can persist with only rare opportunities to ripen seed is suggested by many records of the species having been made as a result of lawns being uncut for some weeks in the hot, dry summer of 1955 (Perring 1956). REFERENCES GEORGE, M. (1961). The flowering plants and ferns of Dale, Pembroke- shire. Field Studies, 1, No. 3. PERRING, F. H. (1956). Spiranthes spiralis (L.) Chevall. in Britain, 1955. Proc. B.S.B.I., 2, 6.