Myddfai Country Diary by Sheikh & Hazel Ahmed

Hazel Ahmed, who is Carmarthenshire born and bred, has returned to settle in Myddfai. During her formative years, she spent many happy hours exploring the countryside around her family home where she learnt a lot about the local flora and fauna from her late Auntie Sue, a formidable naturalist. Sheikh is a retired biochemist and has always had a great love for the wilderness on his doorstep. Together they spend their time walking and cycling the local lanes and footpaths and continue to enjoy the amazing show that nature provides daily. In this regular column they hope to capture some of the changes in the countryside with the seasons in Myddfai.

August 25 2011

The Hedgehog is well known as the gardener’s friends because it gets rid of nasty pests, such as slugs and snails and is often clothed in the lovable Mrs Tiggywinkle image. A hedgehog map of Carmarthenshire shows that the animal is widely distributed across the county although a recent national report has found that overall numbers have declined by 25% in 10 years. Most of these counts seem to come from roadkill figures. This week we counted three dead hedgehogs, two in one day on the road to Llangadog. So this was a case of both good and bad news: bad news because there were two dead animals and good news as it confirmed that these wonderful creatures are active in Myddfai.

We recently came upon this fearsome looking insect in our yard which at first sight we mistook for a large hornet. It is a Giant Wood Wasp (pictured). This 4 to 5cm long insect, with a black and yellow striped appearance, is not a wasp but a Sawfly and is quite harmless. This particular one was a female: you can see the large spiny protuberance on its underside at the rear, which is not a sting but its ovipositor (the egg-laying organ). It uses this for boring holes and depositing its eggs in timber – usually preferring pine or coniferous wood - where the young can take as long as five years to complete their development. It was very likely that the specimen we were looking at had just emerged as an adult from some nearby timber.

“Lady’s shoes and stockings”, “crows-toes” – the many folk names used for Bird’s Foot Trefoil (pictured) are remarkable. Their number and variety may be accounted for because this plant is so abundant and showy. Birds-foot is the plant’s common name, reflecting a resemblance of the slender seed-pods to a bird’s foot or talons. The trefoil name suggest that the leaves have only three leaflets, but if you look closely you will find an extra pair carried close to the stem. This is another plant of the pea family so it is very useful for its nitrogen fixing properties. It carries its brightly coloured flower heads on long stalks and these are made up of 4 to 6 yellow flowers sometimes streaked with red or orange. The flowers attract a large number of butterflies and moths and the plant is also a food source for their caterpillars. Bees also visit the flowers and pollinate them: an excellent honey is obtained from apiaries where this is the flower of choice. The plant usually flowers from June to September and grows abundantly on roadsides and pastures. The Large-Bird’s Foot Trefoil is more upright and is more likely to be found in damp boggy places.

The Vetches and Vetchlings are also members of the pea family and are flowering abundantly everywhere at present. Tall stems carrying spikes of up to 40 bright bluish-purple flowers make the Tufted Vetch (pictured) one of the most distinctive plants to be seen scrambling among our hedgerows. This plant climbs by means of branched tendrils – a feature that distinguishes the vetches and vetchlings from the other species of the pea family. The flowers provide nectar for bees and butterflies. A close relative of the tufted vetch is the Hairy Tare which features in a parable in the Bible (Matthew 13, 24-30). Jesus tells of the man who sowed good seed in the field. “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat… and the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.” In this parable Jesus recognised the problems that this plant caused in crops of wheat, barley and oats where it gets entangled with the crop, reducing yields and causing problems at harvest time, and used it to convey his message about good and evil.

The Meadow Vetchling (pictured) is also of the same family as the tufted vetch. Although the plant has a small forked tendril it is not a great climber, with the sharply angled stems having to rely on each other and on surrounding plants for most of their support. The numerous yellow flowers are visited mostly by bumble bees.

August 19 2011

The swifts have long returned after their brief stay in Britain but the swallows and house martins are still busy in the air. The warm summer air is also full of insects feeding on the summer flowers. We spent about half an hour or so one afternoon watching a female Large Cabbage White butterfly (pictured) laying its cluster of yellow-orange eggs (pictured) on a nasturtium leaf. Its caterpillars can wreak havoc quickly in gardens and, as they are full of distasteful chemicals, are not eaten by birds, although one parasitic wasp lays its eggs inside the caterpillars where they are then eaten by the grubs.

August is the month when a very attractive plant, with striking purplish-crimson flowers starts to show in the banks. It is a thistle-like, flowering wild plant, but it has no spines. The flowers, which resemble a small bristly pineapple, have knob-like flower heads which have given this plant its name of Hardheads and Knapweed (pictured) – “knap” meant knob in the old English. In Welsh the plant is known as Pen Caled (ie. hardhead). The plant grows widely, in wet or dry ground along more or less every wayside and flowers usually from July to September. The flowers are powerful insect attractants and are visited by most of them: bees, bumble-bees, hoverflies, butterflies and day-flying moths Its botanical name of Centaurea was probably given because Chiron, the wisest among the centaurs of Greek mythology, was said to have first used the plant to heal wounds. In earlier times it was used to heal wounds and also to soothe sore throats and bleeding gums. According to folklore, hardheads could be used to foretell a maiden’s future. After removing any expanded florets off a flower head the girl woul then put the remainder inside her bodice. After an hour she would take it out again and examine it: if the previously unopened florets had now blossomed it was a sure sign that the man she would marry would shortly be coming her way!

Growing low down near the stream, by the new Village Hall (link to web page), there are a lot of clumps of an odd little plant that it is rarely confused with any other. It is a plant with tangled stems and many limp branches, sometimes climbing but without tendrils. At the ends of the branches bloom elongated clusters of small tubular pink-purple, crimson-tipped flowers which are carried from May to September. This is the Common Fumitory (pictured). The name fumitory is derived from a medieval Latin word meaning “smoke of the earth”. One of the origins of this name may arise from the way an acrid smoky smell is given off by the roots when the plant is pulled from the ground. The name may also describe the way the plant spreads its bluish-green foliage over the soil giving it an appearance of smoke rising from the ground. According to ancient exorcists, when the plant is burned its smoke has the power to dispel evil spirits! In Shakespeare’s day fumitory was sold in apothecary shops under the Latin name “fumus terrae (earth-smoke)” and according to a herbal book, published at that time, a syrup made from its juice served to stimulate liver function and rid the body of impurities. The traditional medical use of fumitory is as a skin treatment for eczema and other eruptions of the skin. As Culpepper noted in the 17th century “the juice of the fumitory and docks mingled with vinegar and the places gently washed or wet therewith, cures all sorts of scabs, pimples, blotches and weals.” The flowers have also been used to make a yellow dye for wool.

August 2 2011

The search for wild flowers is a trail which leads people from their own gardens to the wildest and most beautiful countryside that this country has to offer. For most people the greatest satisfaction lies in being able to name the plants they find, since this name is the key to all the information about it. Looking for wild flowers is a hobby that combines easily with other outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, cycling, and photography. And with these wild flowers comes the whole of the food chain: insects that feed on and pollinate the flowers and the animals that prey on these insects. The biodiversity that we enjoy and which sustains the natural world starts here.

The cutters have not yet moved in on the road out of the village, towards Talsarn. We know many people who like to do this walk from the village towards Ffynon Medyggion and beyond to Mynydd Myddfai. When doing this walk, look to the left: the banks and hedges are alive and flourishing. Many of the flowers we have described in the past month are still on show and looking at their best as the banks catch the sun.

We have spotted Mallow (pictured) in two separate locations along this road. There is a sizeable clump on the way up out of the village towards Mynnydd Myddfai, low on the left. This plant is a Musk Mallow and it generally grows to about 2 feet high with lovely pink flowers which are bigger than the Common Mallow. The normal flowering time is June to August. The whole plant – the roots and the foliage – have value as a food and a medicine. As early as the eighth century BC, young mallow shoots were eaten as a vegetable and parts of the plants were used well into Roman times, when a dish of Marsh Mallow was a delicacy: the poet Martial used it to get rid of his hangovers after orgies! In the middle ages mallow had a reputation as an anti-aphrodisiac, promoting calm sober conduct. More recently, its gummy sap has been used externally to wash wounds and sores or is made into an emollient salve or poultice to soothe skin inflammations.

The light blue, bell-shaped flowers of the Harebell (pictured), dancing in summer breezes on their delicate stems can be one of the more colourful sights to be seen by walkers. They have been linked to magic in folklore and given apt names such as “witches’ thimbles”, “fairy bells” and “old man’s bells” - the old man being the Devil! The name Harebell comes from a folk belief that witches used juices squeezed from this flower to transform themselves into hares. In Scotland it is known as the Scottish Bluebell. The plant will grow in dry grassy places, often in poor soil and flower from June to August. There are a number of clumps along the Talsarn road, bobbing about and swaying in a large mixed colony of a number of other wild flowers. The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked: used raw in salads, they have a mild flavour. Medicinally, the root has been used (chewed) by native Americans for a number of heart and lung conditions.

July 25 2011

It is that time of the year when the schools have emptied and many families are off to their holidays in the sun, somewhere in the Med. And many on arrival are captivated by the colourful local wild flowers they see, in the dusty, arid landscapes, from the windows of buses as they are taken off to their hotels. Yet most will have left behind a vibrant and green countryside, often unaware of the rich natural bounty that is also there at this time of the year.

The hedgerows and banks in Myddfai are alive and bristling with life. Coming into its own at the moment is the Honeysuckle (pictured). It is now appearing in most of the hedges, wrapping itself round most of the plants around it as it heads upwards towards the sunlight. A classical plant that has co-evolved with insects and other pollinators, its sweet scent perfumes the air at dusk on a summer’s evening. In Shakespeare’s day it was known as Woodbine, because of its habit as a climbing plant of entwining itself around young trees and saplings. It does this so tightly with its clockwise coils that it can often deform the trunk. The creamy white or yellowish flowers have a long tube and are usually pollinated by long-tongued insects, such as bees, who feed on the nectar deep within. Herbalists have used its flowers for a number of conditions such as headaches, lung diseases and asthma. Mixed with honey to make a syrup, the flowers were used as an expectorant for bad coughs and asthma and. However, caution must be exercised with the berries as they are toxic. Honeysuckle has romantic associations, too: there is an old superstition that if honeysuckle is brought into the house, a wedding will follow and that its flowers placed in a girl’s bedroom will bring her dreams of love!

The other sweet scent being carried in the air is that of Clover, a low-growing plant belonging to the same family as peas and beans, known as legumes. In domestic gardens this plant is often seen as an unwanted weed but it has an important part to play in nature’s life cycle. As with all legumes, clover has tiny nodules on its roots which contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria - ie organisms that convert the nitrogen gas from the air into soluble salts that plants can take up directly from the soil for growth. In other words, nature’s own fertiliser! Because of this property clover plays an important part in the organic farming cycle as it can be harvested for fodder or ploughed in to enrich the soil. The three-lobed leaves were associated by medieval Christians with the Trinity and were worn or carried as were the rare four-leaved clovers, to bring luck and to ward off witches and warlocks!

The White Clover (pictured) is much more strongly scented than the red variety and is especially valuable to bee-keepers as it attracts long-tongued insects who are able to reach the abundant nectar contained at the bottom of the deep tube formed by the petals.

The Red Clover (pictured) has a more delicate scent than the white variety, and this also attracts insects such as bees and butterflies, but the main pollinators seem to be bumble bees. It has also had more herbal and medicinal uses. In the past, red clover flowers were used in syrup form for the relief of whooping cough. More recently, the oestrogen-like compounds found in red clover, called flavonoids, have been used in treating the symptoms of the menopause and herbal remedies containing red clover extracts are marketed for this use.

July 14 2011

The hay making machines have been busy these past few days, taking advantage of the dry weather and the bumper grass crop in the meadows. Sadly, another consequence of living in a farming community in Myddfai has meant that there is a great need for good sightlines down the narrow lanes, where these big tractors are busy and the farmers on fast quads are also out driving their sheep to the next grazing field; nobody seems to want to slow down too much. So the machines have also been busy, cutting back the banks in the hedgerows and with them most of the wild flowers which have been there in profusion. Some of the smaller lanes are still untouched and looking colourful. The predominant colours are yellow and pink. So this week we looked at some of the bright yellow flowers.

On the road to Talsarn, there is a big clump of St John’s Wort (pictured) on a bank near Tyn Garn. This perennial plant, with erect stems, can grow up to 1m high. With narrow oblong, yellow-green leaves, it has a striking yellow flower. The flower yields a reddish juice, like blood, when bruised. Hence its early use in treating wounds. It is said that the plant takes its name from the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, who used it to treat wounds on the Crusade battlefields. It was also believed to dispel evil spirits – which is why the insane were often compelled to drink its infusions. Being yellow the herb was sometimes associated with “choleric” humours and used for jaundice and hysteria. Today, a number of clinical studies suggest it is effective in the treatment of depression. As a herbal treatment it can be purchased over the counter in pill form.

Hawkweed (pictured)is to be found in the banks with its bright yellow dandelion-like flowers borne in clusters. It can also be found as an orange variant, with orange-red flowers also borne in clusters, known as Orange Hawkweed. There is a clump of orange hawkweed on a bank opposite the new Village Hall. Culpepper gives many uses for this plant: to cure the jaundice, a remedy for the stone and griping pains of the bowels; also “a singular wound herb for wounds both inward and outward”. Today it is said to be a good remedy for the whooping cough and affections of the lungs.

To round up the tour of yellow flowering plants currently to be found in the parish, mention must be made of Nipplewort (pictured). This is to be found everywhere in the banks. An annual plant, it has yellow flowers which open from nipple-shaped buds (hence the name) borne on a delicate branched stem. The young leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked. They are best harvested before the plant comes into flower. The leaves can be also be added to salads and have a bitter or radish-like taste.

July 7 2011

With the excellent weather we have enjoyed – although the recent rains were very much needed - the hay meadows are full of the most luxuriant grasses. From a distance they seem to have quite a pink tint. On closer examination you can see that this colour is due to sorrel: the sorrel flowers give the marked pinkish brown hue to the fields.

The cutting machines have not yet moved in to start their job in cutting back the banks and everywhere is a riot of colour. From a distance it is easy to spot the blocks of colour that are beginning to predominate. At the moment one of the most common colours is pink with some yellows also just starting (more of these next week). On our walks these pink blocks of flowers have been easy to spot.

On the road out to Llangadog, there is a big clump of Ragged Robin (pictured) on the bend opposite Coed Letter. It is now getting quite rare to see this pretty pink perennial plant of damp places, with its flower heads divided into four ragged petals giving it an untidy ragged appearance, hence its name. The numbers are declining because of modern farming techniques.

Ragged Robin is often confused with the Red Campion (pictured) which is also found both along woodland edges and in the hedgerows. It has a pretty dark pink to red flower and many gardeners are known to find a place in their garden for this perennial. The nectar of the flowers is a great attractant for bumblebees and butterflies and several species of moth feed on the foliage.

Lower down on the banks, Herb Robert (pictured) is to be found. There is a big clump of it on a bank near Tyn Garn. A low growing perennial of the geranium family, it has had a great use in traditional herbalism as a remedy for toothache and nosebleeds. It has also been used on wounds for healing and to prevent scarring as it is claimed to have an antiseptic effect.

Another very attractive pink perennial slowly coming into its own in the banks around Myddfai is Rosebay Willow Herb (pictured). During the Second World War, the plant became known as bombweed in London due to its rapid colonisation of bomb craters and the appearance of this colourful flower became a cause for some rejoicing by the weary city dwellers. Recent studies have shown it to possess some anti-inflammatory properties with uses for nappy rash, sunburn and even as a mouthwash.

Finally, in this series of pink coloured wild flowers to be found around Myddfai, we must mention the Foxglove (pictured). Near the Usk Reservoir there is large bit of forestry, recently harvested for wood, where the open spaces created have been colonised by foxgloves. The whole field looks quite spectacular from a distance, as if it has been covered with a pinkish purple carpet. The flower has a strong hold in the popular imagination with its elegant long spikes and distinctive tubular shape, usually purple to pink, which is a powerful attractant for bees and bumblebees. The plant has a legend of being involved with fairies and magic: one source says that it is name for a glove worn by the “folks” – the fairies. Another explanation of the name suggests that the flowers were worn by a fox over its feet to muffle the sound of its footstep as it approached its prey! In 1775, William Withering used extracts of foxglove to treat the dropsy successfully. This discovery led to the plant being investigated thoroughly and today it is an important source of a treatment, called digoxin, which in pill form is used to treat heart failure.

July 1 2011

The sun is now in the highest point in the sky and most of the native and visiting birds have fledged their young. The young swallows are busy – alongside their parents and our friendly pied wagtail family has decided to produce another brood in our shed. Nature is busy busy everywhere and none more so than in the hedgerows all around us.

Myddfai is known as the home of the “Physicians of Myddfai”. All around there is ample proof of the many herbs and wild flowers that featured so prominently in the pharmacopoeias of these legendary people. In these regular nature notes on what is to be found in the parish I will try and describe some of the “regulars” that are there waiting to be found all around us.

Betony – sometimes called purple betony - is flowering freely in all the hedgerows in Myddfai at the moment. A plant of the mint family it brings a welcome purple to pink colour in the hedgerow (pictured). Betony was one of the most important Anglo-Saxon herbs and had no fewer than 29 uses in treating physical ailments. It was noted in 1597 that “it maketh a man to pisse well”. It was also, possibly, the most popular amulet herb and was used well into the Middle Ages to ward off evil or ill humours. One word of caution, though, the herb is a uterine stimulant and so is to be avoided in pregnancy.

Another plant coming into flower is Meadowsweet. An old herb, meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, near Myddfai. Thickly clustered, creamy white flowers, carried on many branches, fill the air on a warm still day with an amazing fragrance (pictured). This tall plant grows freely in the hedgerow, the hay meadow as well as river banks. Meadowsweet was a popular Elizabethan “strewing herb”, strewn on floors to give rooms a pleasant aroma. It was also known as Bridewort, because it was strewn in churches for weddings and also made into bridal garlands. The plant also had another, medicinal, use: to ease fevers and pains. In the nineteenth century anti-inflammatory chemicals called salicylates were first extracted from the plant and the large German pharmaceutical company, Bayer, went on to synthesise a safer form of this molecule, called acetylsalicylate. They called this “wonder drug” aspirin after Spiraea ulmaria, the old name for the herb and this modern drug led to a major advance in treating aches, pains and fevers.