Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Flora
Following years of industrialisation, just 14% of the Welsh countryside remains covered by
woodland, characterised mostly by non-native Sitka spruce, a fast-growing crop shirked by
most wildlife. In many areas erosion caused by cultivation and overgrazing has prevented
native species from rooting and reseeding, although native ash is thriving on the Gower
Peninsula and in Brecon Beacons; several types of orchid flower in its shade, together with
common dog violets, from March to May.
Away from grazing animals, alpine-arctic plants breed in mountainous regions, although
hikers and climbers can cause irreparable damage to purple saxifrage and moss campion
nestling between the rocks on higher slopes. Rare cotton grass sprouts from inland bogs
and soggy peat lands in midsummer, among bog pimpernel and thriving myrtle. Butterwort,
one of Britain's few insectivorous plants, traps insects in wet grassland at Cwm Cadlan
near Penderyn, in southwest Wales. Evening primrose, sea bindweed and marram grass
may be spotted on the coast between the sand dunes, while thrift and samphire grace the
Gower Peninsula.
For an impression of how the oak forests of the Welsh landscape once looked, visit one of the ive sites
managed by Natural Resources Wales, such as the Coed y Brenin Visitor Centre near Dolgellau.
