Bridgend coast · Moderate pressure
Porthcawl, Kenfig & the Bridgend Coast
Dune systems are the priority here — rugosa rose over-stabilises mobile sand, and garden escapes press in from the coastal towns. Covered by Bridgend County Borough Council on council land.
Streets and places to watch
- Porthcawl
- Kenfig
- Pyle
- Kenfig National Nature Reserve
- Rest Bay
These are the corridors where growth is most often recorded — lane walls, verges, brook banks and cleared plots. Individual gardens are not listed.
Towns, villages and places in this area
Each place has its own local guide with a map, area facts and the plants to watch for.
What grows here
Japanese rose
A thorny dune invader. It binds and over-stabilises mobile sand, which is exactly the wrong thing for Swansea Bay and Gower dune systems that depend on bare sand.
Flowers June–September, hips autumn
Wall cotoneaster
Birds carry the berries from gardens straight onto Gower's limestone cliffs and grasslands, where cotoneaster smothers some of the rarest plant communities in Wales.
Flowers May–June, red berries autumn into winter
Himalayan balsam
The pink-flowered annual that lines almost every stream in Swansea. One plant throws up to 2,500 seeds and the seed floats, so a single upstream patch reseeds miles of bank.
Germinates March, flowers June–October, dies back with first frost