Landmark ‘Flora of Brecknockshire’ Published, Celebrating a Lifetime of Botanical Discovery

Definitive new book documents the wildflowers, trees and plants found in the historic county of Brecknockshire, including Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

The Flora is the culmination of a lifetime’s work by Mike Porter, a highly respected local botanist. Mike began recording Brecknockshire’s plants in the 1960s, systematically exploring the county and mapping the plants. Mike continued working on The Flora into his 90th year and was able to see the final draft of the book before he sadly passed away in 2025. The work has since been carefully edited and brought to publication by his friend and collaborator, John Crellin.

This landmark publication is the first comprehensive account of Brecknockshire’s plant life since the Mountain Pansy was recorded in 1667. It summarises Mike’s incredible knowledge of Breconshire and its plants, combining over 55 years of recent field records alongside historical data. It is a credit to Mike and the 400 botanists who have contributed to this stunning piece of work, alongside John Crellin for facilitating The Flora’s production. It is a major milestone for Welsh botany.

Mike Porter was the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s County Recorder for Breconshire from 1968. Mike had a particular expertise in plants which are notoriously difficult to name such as Whitebeams, Dandelions, Brambles and Hawkweeds. He named 9 species new to science and Porter’s Dandelion (Taraxacum porteri) is named after him.

The Flora of Brecknockshire is available from Summerfield Books https://www.summerfieldbooks.com priced at £40 plus postage.
It is a full colour A4 hardback with 544 pages, including more than 400 photographs, 47 paintings and 1,100 maps.