Over 400 species of wild plants have been recorded across the 568 acres of the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
These have not only been recorded on the varied semi-natural habitats on Waun Las National Nature Reserve – its woodland, meadows, marshes, pastures, ditches, lakesides, scrub, arable edges and hedgerow – but also on walls, car parks, roadsides and wasteland.
Meadows
Visitors have the thrilling chance to walk back in time and see the kind of wild plants that would once have been common across the Welsh countryside. Across over 50 acres of restored hay meadows you can find fields full of orchids, Yellow Rattle, Great Burnet, Common Knapweed and Catsear. A must see is the thousands of Greater Butterfly-orchid in June, a month in which you may also see wet pastures turn white with the blossom of Whorled Caraway, Carmarthenshire’s county flower and the British endemic Glandular Eyebright (Euphrasia anglica). On the marshy edges of the site are wide variety plants with scientific names which end in uliginosus (full of moisture), aquatica (watery) or palustre (marshy) such as the Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre).
Woodland
Our woodlands are characteristically rich in Oak, Beech, Hazel and Hornbeam, with wetter areas more characterised by Alder and Willow, and hedgerows rich in Blackthorn and Hawthorn. Beautiful carpets of Bluebell and Wood Anemone, with patches of Yellow Archangel, Dog’s Mercury and Moschatel indicate land that may have been woodland for hundreds of years. Mosses and liverworts love the relatively damp climate here and cover many of the lower parts of our tree trunks, as well on walls, lawns and boulders. These include Cryphaea heteromalla which almost disappeared from urban and industrial areas in Britain in the 20th century due to pollution. Ferns prefer shaded places but really catch the eye on branches overhanging our lakes and streams, which are characteristically lined with purple loosestrife and marsh marigold.
We also have some wonderful rare oddities such as the surprisingly scented Corsican Mint in between the cobbles in Millennium Square and white flowered form of Common Spotted-orchid in our Cae Trawscoed meadow.