Brian J Ford papers in Chicago, (1998) (original) (raw)
This color plant distribution map of the kilometer-long Sully Island was a teenage project, dating from 1957-58. It shows main features of relief and topography, and records the location of several species of ecological significance. These include the bee orchid Ophrys maculata(L.), adder's-tongue Ophioglossum lusitanicum (L.) and the sea spleenwort Asplenium marinum (L.).
Sully Island is a kilometer off the South Wales coast between Penarth sand Barry. Curiously, it is connected to the mainland for about half the time, and cut off by the sea for the other half. The rate of tidal rise and fall is the highest in the old world (only the tidal race in the Bay of Fundy, Novia Scotia, is greater). Many people have been swept to their deaths through trying to leave the island on a rising tide. Other projects, not yet available on the web, included tidal measurements, time-lapse photography, collection of marine phyophytes, beach pollution and many photographs of habitats and geological features. A note of the plant species whose distribution is plotted is separately available.
For references see also habitat records by Brian J Ford [in] Hyde, H. A. and Wade, A. E., 1969, Welsh Ferns, fifth edition, pp 70, 138, 162.
Aerial Photograph of Sully Island in 1980
The aerial photograph shows the true outline. It may be compared with the view from the mainland. The aerial view reveals that the north-east promontory projects further than the sketch-map suggests. There are visible changes due to weathering over two decades. Erosion has exaggerated the outline of the two small headlands to the south-west, and the main footpath has extended across in a south-easterly direction. The area of swampland (showing purple in colour to the west of the center) has contracted. Fungal 'fairy rings' recorded in the original map are visible in this view. The shipwreck visible to the north of the center of the island (top map) has continued to move in a northly direction under tidal forces. Coastal erosion of the soft red shale in this area is up to five centimeters a year. Ingress of sandy shingle along the central northern coast is apparent, as is the loss of the distinct south-eastern headland, site of a Saxon fort.
