Machynys Ponds (Welsh: Pyllau Machynys) is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI) in

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, Wales, designated in 1993 for its

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

features.

SSSI

Machynys Ponds SSSI is located approximately to the south-east of

Llanelli Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. ...

and immediately to the east of the village of

Machynys Machynys, or Machynys Peninsula is a coastal area just to the south of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. In the nineteenth century an industrial community lived here working at the brickworks and tinplate works that occupied the site. When the ...

. The site is approximately inland from the north bank of the

River Loughor The River Loughor () ( cy, Afon Llwchwr) is a river in Wales which marks the border between Carmarthenshire and Swansea. The river is sourced from an underground lake at the Black Mountain emerging at the surface from Llygad Llwchwr which trans ...

estuary, covers and is above sea-level. The SSSI comprises four

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

s, one large and to the east, three smaller, connected by fen-carr hosting willow and scrub. The site is designated for its standing-water and swamp habitats, which are of interest of themselves, but also support a diverse and rich species mix. Of special note, and an additional reason for designation, is the presence of 14 species of

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

and

damselfly Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along ...

found at the ponds. The ponds are situated on a

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...

– debris at the front of a glacier – which forms the Machynys Peninsula. They are flooded

clay pit A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits. A brickyard or brickworks is of ...

s, dug to supply local 19th century brickworks and inundated in a great storm in 1896, and are in part of interest for the habitats that have formed in the decades since their creation. The large pond is populated with spiked water-milfoil ('' Myriophylium spicatum''), Canadian waterweed (''

Elodea canadensis ''Elodea canadensis'' (American waterweed or Canadian waterweed or pondweed) is a perennial aquatic plant, or submergent macrophyte, native to most of North America.Flora of North America''Elodea canadensis''/ref>Plants of British Columbia''Elod ...

''), yellow-flowered fringed water-lily (''

Nymphoides peltata ''Nymphoides peltata'' (syn. ''Villarsia nymphaeoides'', ''Limnanthemum peltatum'' S.G. Gmel., ''Nymphoides nymphaeoides'' (L.) Britton, fringed water lily, yellow floating heart, floating heart, water fringe, entire marshwort) is perennial, root ...

''), and beds of bulrush (''

Typha latifolia ''Typha latifolia'' (broadleaf cattail, bulrush, common bulrush, common cattail, cat-o'-nine-tails, great reedmace, cooper's reed, cumbungi) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus '' Typha''. It is found as a native plant species in North a ...

''), common reed (''

Phragmites australis ''Phragmites australis'', known as the common reed, is a species of plant. It is a broadly distributed wetland grass that can grow up to tall. Description ''Phragmites australis'' commonly forms extensive stands (known as reed beds), which may ...

''), sea club-rush (''

Scirpus maritimus ''Bolboschoenus maritimus'' is a species of flowering plant from family Cyperaceae. Common names for this species include sea clubrush, cosmopolitan bulrush, alkali bulrush, saltmarsh bulrush, and bayonet grass. It is found in seaside wetland hab ...

'') and grey club-rush (''

Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani ''Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani'' ( syn. ''Scirpus validus'') is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names softstem bulrush, grey club-rush, and great bulrush. It can be found throughout much of the world; it ha ...

''). The pond provides a habitat and breeding ground for a variety of waterfowl such as the

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home ...

tufted duck The tufted duck or tufted pochard (''Aythya fuligula'') is a small diving duck with a population of close to one million birds, found in northern Eurasia. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek '' aithuia'', an unidentified seabird ment ...

coot Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually ...

and dabchick. Other avians species nesting at the pond include

gadwall The gadwall (''Mareca strepera'') is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. Taxonomy The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. DNA studies have shown that ...

water rail The water rail (''Rallus aquaticus'') is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the war ...

reed warbler The ''Acrocephalus'' warblers are small, insectivorous passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Acrocephalus''. Formerly in the paraphyletic Old World warbler assemblage, they are now separated as the namesake of the marsh and tree warbler famil ...

sedge warbler The sedge warbler (''Acrocephalus schoenobaenus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus '' Acrocephalus''. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge warblers are migratory, crossing ...

reed bunting The common reed bunting (''Emberiza schoeniclus'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name ''Emberiza'' is from Old German ''Embritz'', a ...

and other

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

s. The three smaller ponds are more shallow – one sufficiently so to dry up in times of low rainfall. They host rushes (''

Juncaceae Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous monocotyledonous plants that may superficially resemble grasses and s ...

'') and bulrush, water mint (''

Mentha aquatica ''Mentha aquatica'' (water mint; syn. ''Mentha hirsuta'' Huds.Euro+Med Plantbase Project''Mentha aquatica'') is a perennial flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It grows in moist places and is native to much of Europe, northwest Africa ...

''), false fox-sedge (''

Carex otrubae ''Carex otrubae'', the false fox-sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Description It grows tall with the leaves being linear and wide. Both inflorescence and lanceolate are long. Its utricles are either pal ...

''), great willowherb (''

Epilobium hirsutum ''Epilobium hirsutum'' is a flowering plant belonging to the willowherb genus ''Epilobium'' in the family Onagraceae. It is commonly known as the great willowherb, great hairy willowherb or hairy willowherb. Local names include codlins-and-cream, ...

''), common fleabane (''

Pulicaria dysenterica ''Pulicaria dysenterica'', the common fleabane, or, in North America, meadow false fleabane, is a species of fleabane in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia where it grows in a variety of habitats ranging from semi-ari ...

''), gipsywort ('' Lyccous europaeus''), branched bur-reed (''

Sparganium erectum ''Sparganium erectum'', the simplestem bur-reed or branched bur-reed, is a perennial plant species in the genus ''Sparganium ''Sparganium'' (bur-reed) is a genus of flowering plants, described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753. It is widespread ...

''), common marsh-bedstraw ('' Galium palusrre''), and water-plantain (''

Alisma plantago-aquatica ''Alisma plantago-aquatica'', also known as European water-plantain, common water-plantain or mad-dog weed, is a perennial flowering aquatic plant widespread across most of Europe and Asia, and apparently spread elsewhere in both the Old and New ...

''). Two species, parsley water-dropwort (''

Oenanthe lachenalii ''Oenanthe lachenalii'', parsley water-dropwort, is a flowering plant in the carrot family, which is native to Europe and parts of North Africa. It is a declining plant of coastal wetlands. Description Parsley water-dropwort is a hairless pere ...

'') and sea club-rush indicate

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

. More shallow areas of the ponds contain mare's-tail (''

Hippuris vulgaris ''Hippuris vulgaris'' (from Greek: ἵππος — ''horse'' and οὐρά — ''tail''), known as mare's-tail or common mare's-tail, is a common aquatic plant of Eurasia and North America ranging from Greenland to the Tibetan Plateau to Arizon ...

'') and lesser water-parsnip (''

Berula erecta ''Berula erecta'', known as lesser water-parsnip or cutleaf waterparsnip or narrow-leaved water-parsnip, is a member of the carrot family. Growing to around tall, it is found in or by water. It is widespread across much of Europe, Asia, Austral ...

''), grey willow (''

Salix cinerea ''Salix cinerea'' (common sallow, grey sallow, grey willow, grey-leaved sallow, large grey willow, pussy willow, rusty sallow) is a species of willow native to Europe and western Asia.Meikle, R. D. (1984). ''Willows and Poplars of Great Britain ...

''); various-leaved water-starwort (''

Callitriche platycarpa ''Callitriche'' is a genus of largely aquatic plants known as water-starwort. Previously, it was the only genus in the family Callitrichaceae. However, according to the APG II system this family is now included in the Plantaginaceae (plantain fam ...

''), brackish water-crowfoot ('' Ranunculus baudotii'') and stonewort ('' Chara vuloaris''). Amongst the dragonfly fauna of the site are the fenland hairy dragonfly (''Brachytron pratense''), the black-tailed skimmer (''Orthetrum cancellatum''), the ruddy darter (''Symtetrum sanguineum''), and the migrant hawker (''Aeshna mixta''). The site also hosts a diversity of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

and

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

species, and the profile of invertebrates found at the ponds is found to be related to ponds of south and south-east England.

References

{{reflist

External links

*SSSI information from

Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales ( cy, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru) is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Count ...

:
SSSI Citation
**
Your Special Site and its Future
'
Species groups
–

National Biodiversity Network The National Biodiversity Network (UK) (NBN) is a collaborative venture set up in 2000 in the United Kingdom committed to making biodiversity information available through various media, including on the internet via the NBN Atlas—the data searc ...

Machynys Ponds
in ''The Llanelli Levels'', Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter No.1 May 1995 *Maps:
SSSI Citation map

MAGIC map
–

DEFRA DEFRA may refer to: * Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law * Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department {{Disambiguation ...

NBN Gateway map
- National Biodiversity Network Ponds of Europe Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Carmarthen & Dinefwr

SSSI

See also

References

External links