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Craig Y Cilau
Craig y Cilau is a limestone escarpment in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It was declared a national nature reserve in 1959 because of its importance for wildlife, particularly plants. It is situated on the north side of Mynydd Llangatwg in Llangattock community, about south-west of Crickhowell. The reserve covers and has a varied geology with Old Red Sandstone below the cliffs and Millstone Grit above them. The range of habitats is equally wide with woodland and scrub in the lower parts and moorland higher up. There are numerous caves and disused quarries along the escarpment. The limestone cliffs are home to many scarce plants including maiden pink (''Dianthus deltoides''), hutchinsia (''Hornungia petraea'') and the most southerly British population of alpine enchanter's nightshade ('' Circaea alpina''). Five species of whitebeam occur including the narrow-leaved whitebeam (''Sorbus leptophylla'') and lesser whitebeam (''Sorbus minima'') which are e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craig Y Cilau
Craig y Cilau is a limestone escarpment in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It was declared a national nature reserve in 1959 because of its importance for wildlife, particularly plants. It is situated on the north side of Mynydd Llangatwg in Llangattock community, about south-west of Crickhowell. The reserve covers and has a varied geology with Old Red Sandstone below the cliffs and Millstone Grit above them. The range of habitats is equally wide with woodland and scrub in the lower parts and moorland higher up. There are numerous caves and disused quarries along the escarpment. The limestone cliffs are home to many scarce plants including maiden pink (''Dianthus deltoides''), hutchinsia (''Hornungia petraea'') and the most southerly British population of alpine enchanter's nightshade ('' Circaea alpina''). Five species of whitebeam occur including the narrow-leaved whitebeam (''Sorbus leptophylla'') and lesser whitebeam (''Sorbus minima'') which are e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environmental impact. The word ''quarry'' can also include the underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone. Types of rock Types of rock extracted from quarries include: *Chalk *China clay *Cinder *Clay *Coal * Construction aggregate (sand and gravel) * Coquina * Diabase *Gabbro *Granite * Gritstone *Gypsum *Limestone *Marble *Ores *Phosphate rock *Quartz *Sandstone * Slate *Travertine Stone quarry Stone quarry is an outdated term for mining construction rocks (limestone, marble, granite, sandstone, etc.). There are open types (called quarries, or open-pit mines) and closed types ( mines and caves). For thousands of years, only hand tools had been used in quarries. In the 18th century, the use of drilling and blasting operatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Pied Flycatcher
The European pied flycatcher (''Ficedula hypoleuca'') is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it bird hybrid, hybridizes to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher. It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa. It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees. This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate. The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding. The European pied flycatcher is mainly insectivorous, although its diet also includes other arthropods. This species commonly feeds on spiders, ants, bees and similar prey. The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and so it is of least concern according to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wood Warbler
The wood warbler (''Phylloscopus sibilatrix'') is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe, and just into the extreme west of Asian Russia in the southern Ural Mountains. This warbler is strongly migratory and the entire population winters in tropical Africa. Name The genus name ''Phylloscopus'' is from Ancient Greek ''phullon'', "leaf", and ''skopos'', "seeker" (from ''skopeo'', "to watch"). The specific ''sibilatrix'' is Latin for "whistler". At the end of the nineteenth century the bird was also called "wood-wren". Habitat This is a bird of open but shady mature woodlands, such as beech and sessile oak, with some sparse ground cover for nesting. The dome-shaped nest is built near the ground in low shrub. Six or seven eggs are laid in May; there may be a second brood. Like most Old World warblers, this small passerine is insectivorous. The main nest predators of wood warblers breeding in the primeval habitat of Biało ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Redstart
The common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher (family Muscicapidae). Taxonomy and systematics The first formal description of the common redstart was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Motacilla phoenicurus''. The genus ''Phoenicurus'' was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817. The genus and species name ''phoenicurus'' is from Ancient Greek ''phoinix'', "red", and ''-ouros'' -"tailed". Two subspecies are accepted. The nominate ''P. p. phoenicurus'' is found all over Europe and reaches into Siberia. To the southeast, subspecies ''P. p. samamisicus'' is found from the Crimean Peninsula through Turkey, the Middle East, and into Central Asia. It is sli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Raven
The common raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. It is a raven known by many names at the subspecies level; there are at least eight subspecies with little variation in appearance, although recent research has demonstrated significant genetic differences among populations from various regions. It is one of the two largest corvids, alongside the thick-billed raven, and is possibly the heaviest passerine bird; at maturity, the common raven averages in length and in mass. Although their typical lifespan is considerably shorter, common ravens can live more than 23 years in the wild. Young birds may travel in flocks but later mate for life, with each mated pair defending a territory. Common ravens have coexisted with humans for thousands of years and in some areas have been so numerous that people have regarded them as pests. Part of their success as a species is due ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring Ouzel
The ring ouzel (''Turdus torquatus'') is a mainly European member of the thrush family Turdidae. It is a medium-sized thrush, in length and weighing . The male is predominantly black with a conspicuous white crescent across its breast. Females are browner and duller than males, and young birds may lack the pale chest markings altogether. In all but the northernmost part of its range, this is a high-altitude species, with three races breeding in mountains from Ireland east to Iran. It breeds in open mountain areas with some trees or shrubs, the latter often including heather, conifers, beech, hairy alpenrose or juniper. It is a migratory bird, leaving the breeding areas to winter in southern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, typically in mountains with juniper bushes. The typical clutch is 3–6 brown-flecked pale blue or greenish-blue eggs. They are incubated almost entirely by the female, with hatching normally occurring after 13 days. The altricial, downy chicks fledge i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sorbus Minima
''Sorbus minima'', commonly known as the lesser whitebeam or least whitebeam, is a shrub belonging to the subgenus ''Aria'' (whitebeams) in the genus ''Sorbus''. It is endemic to Wales where it grows at a few sites in Breconshire. It is an apomictic microspecies which reproduces asexually and so is reproductively isolated from its close relatives such as the Swedish whitebeam, '' S. intermedia''. It probably originated as a hybrid between the rock whitebeam ('' S. rupicola'') and the rowan ('' S. aucuparia''). It was first discovered in 1893 by Augustin Ley, the vicar of Sellack in Herefordshire who travelled widely in Wales. It is a slender, deciduous shrub which can reach three metres in height. The leaves are 6–8 centimetres long and are fairly narrow and oval in shape being 1.8–2.2 times as long as they are broad. They are acutely pointed at the tip and base, have 7–10 (usually 8 or 9) pairs of veins and are lobed one fifth to one third of the way to the midrib. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sorbus Leptophylla
''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan ( mountain-ash) and service tree. The exact number of species is disputed depending on the circumscription of the genus, and also due to the number of apomictic microspecies, which some treat as distinct species, but others group in a smaller number of variable species. Recent treatmentsRobertson, K. R., J. B. Phipps, J. R. Rohrer, and P. G. Smith. 1991. A Synopsis of Genera in Maloideae (Rosaceae). ''Systematic Botany'' 16: 376–394.McAllister, H. 2005. The Genus ''Sorbus'': Mountain Ash and Other Rowans. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Potter, D., T. Eriksson, R. C. Evans, S.-H. Oh, J. E. E. Smedmark, D.R. Morgan, M. S. Kerr, and C. S. Campbell. (2007). Phylogeny and classification of Rosaceae. ''Plant Systematics and Evolution''. 266(1–2): 5–43.Campbell C. S., R. C. Evans, D. R. Morgan, T. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitebeam
The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, comprising subgenus ''Aria'' (or, according to some authorities, its own genus) of genus ''Sorbus'', and hybrids involving species of this subgenus and members of subgenera ''Sorbus'', ''Torminaria'' and ''Chamaemespilus''. They are deciduous trees with simple or lobed leaves, arranged alternately. They are related to the rowans (''Sorbus'' subgenus ''Sorbus''), and many of the endemic restricted-range apomictic microspecies of whitebeam in Europe are thought to derive from hybrids between ''S. aria'' and the European rowan ''S. aucuparia''; some are also thought to be hybrids with the wild service tree ''S. torminalis'', notably the service tree of Fontainebleau ''Sorbus latifolia'' in French woodlands. The best known species is the common whitebeam '' Sorbus aria'', a columnar tree which grows to tall by broad, with clusters of white flowers in spring followed by speckled red berries in autumn (fall). Appearance The surface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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