Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

National Nature Reserves in Wales: a systematic survey The systematic survey of National Nature Reserves in Wales was initiated in Volume 1, part one of the new series of Nature in Wales with an annotated inventory. Descriptions of three of these-Coedydd Maentwrog, Cors Caron and Oxwich-were given in Volume 1, part 2 along with a distribution map of the 33 reserves designated by the end of 1981. Three others-Cadair Idris, Dyfi and Ogof Ffynnon Ddu-were described in Volume 2 and a special anniversary item on the first NNR to be designated 7. Cwm Idwal NNR, Gwynedd The choice of Cwm Idwal as the first NNR in Wales was almost automatic. It had, for example, figured more prominently than any other Welsh site in the various lists of suggestions made during the first half of the century from the one by the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves in 1915, the British Correlating Committee in 1929, the British Ecological Society in 1943, the Nature Reserves Investigation Committee in 1945 and by the Huxley Committee in 1947. It also had some very striking natural phenomena; and among them the remnant arctic-alpine flora. The following paragraphs from a recent article by William Condry in Country Life clearly emphasise the point: 'This community of Snowdon alpines (plus a handful of rarities) has a unique position in the world. It is not only very close to the mild Atlantic, but its altitude too (mostly 1,500-2,500 ft) is quite unalpine. Yet here we find the alpine saxifrage (Saxifraga nivalis), a plant that feels at home at over 6,000 ft as far north as Norway, and flourishes also at nearly 14,000 ft in the Rockies. Not that it can really be said to flourish in Snowdonia. Indeed it only just holds on, and is a considerable rarity. 'Another rarity is Lloydia serotina, which we parochially call the Snowdon lily, but which in Wales-Cwm Idwal-was given in Volume 3. This item included reprints of the article by R. Elfyn Hughes announcing the designation-in The Sphere, and the two famous papers-Lloydia serotina (L.) Rchb., by Norman Woodhead (in the Journal of Ecology, 1951) and Vegetational history at Cwm Idwal: a Welsh plant refuge, by Harry Godwin (in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrifft, 1955). The description of this reserve is continued in the current issue of Nature in Wales. (continued) happens to be the most widespread lily in the world, though marvellously discontinuous in its range. Outside Snowdonia it grows in the Alps, the Carpathians, the Himalayas, arctic Russia and other isolated places in Eurasia. And on the opposite of the northern hemisphere, it is found very high in the Rockies.' 'At many of its stations it is reported to be either infrequent or rare. In Snowdonia, where it grows on half a dozen lime-rich cliffs spread over about seven miles from east to west, this tiny, white lily has the distinction of being the only bulbous plant in the alpine community. 'The Snowdon lily's huge but greatly interrupted world range has led to the assumption that in the cold conditions immediately after the ice age its distribution was continuous all across the lowlands of the northern hemisphere, but that, like other present-day alpines, it retreated to the mountains as the climate became temperate. However, why it survived in Wales, yet not elsewhere in Britain, especially Scotland, still awaits an explanation.' The third reason for choosing Cwm Idwal as the first NNR was that it had a wide range of natural interest. The present item, therefore, tries to reflect