23/05/14 - 26/05/14
Arctic alpines make up Britain's most ancient plant communities. They are botanical relics that link us to a time of melting glaciers, mammoths and permafrost. They represent one of the first pages of our island's postglacial natural history. Most of these plants have been extinct in much of the British Isles for many thousands of years. Miraculously, in a few special upland refuges a handful of these, both extremely beautiful and extremely hardy, plants survive; pages of a book left unturned over the millennia.
This course provides an introduction to these plants and the ecology of the communities in which they grow. In addition to looking at the flowering plants we will also look at some of the less obvious, but no less interesting, ferns, mosses and lichens, as well as any animal life we come upon.
The course will consist of two days in the mountains of Snowdonia. This course is suitable for dedicated botanists (a chance to see some very rare native plants) through to the absolute beginner who is interested in seeing and learning about some of the most spectacular and rare plant communities in Britain. During stunning walks, you will have plenty of time for photography and to take in the broader aspects of the history and natural history of the upland landscape. Due to the conditions and altitudes at which the plants are found, participants must be able to walk for up to six miles (eight km) a day over rough and, at times, steep ground.
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