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STUDIES IN THE VEGETATIONAL HISTORY OF MID‐WALES
Author(s) -
MOORE P. D.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1978.tb02288.x
Subject(s) - mire , swamp , geology , pollen , detritus , peat , sphagnum , vegetation (pathology) , palynology , ecology , archaeology , geography , paleontology , biology , medicine , pathology
SUMMARY Stratigraphic and pollen evidence is presented from a mire site on the eastern side of the main Cambrian watershed of central Wales. A complex basin contains Late Devensian lake sediments overlain by Flandrian organic detritus muds. Organic lake muds were replaced by swamp and carr vegetation on the north and west of the site, but the south‐east basin continued as a lake until relatively recent times (the last 200 years). Final colonization of the lake was by a floating raft of Carex rostrata, Menyanthes trifoliata and Sphagnum cuspidatum , on which the present sphagnum ‐dominated vegetatiiin has developed. Such schwingmoor mire types are uncommon in Britain and this is a particularly good example. Pollen analysis of the Flandrian lake sediments provides information concerning vegetational history. Interesting early Flandrian records are of Hippophäe rhamnoides. Linum bienne and Fumaria. Pinus sylvestris has low pollen levels in the early Flandrian, unlike many western sites. It is suggested that sites having high values may have Pinus as a local mire colonist. The Ulmus decline is very marked and is accompanied by evidence of cultivation. This is the first evidence of cereal growing in early Neolithic times in Central Wales. Higher in the profile Cannabis saliva assumes importance, possibly as a result of Iron Age/Roman cultivation.