|
Plants in Vice-County 104: A Review of July – December 2009
A Flora of Raasay and Rona has attracted nearly 600 different visitors since its publication in the Spring. My botanical blog has had over 2,100 hits since it started in March and has led to several excellent records from people with whom I had not previously been in contact.
Work for the 2009 Threatened Plants Project was completed with help from Kevin Walker on Rum.
Skye
All known sites in the vice-county for Equisetum x trachyodon (Mackay’s Horsetail (E. hyemale x variegatum)) have now been checked and found to be doing well.
The only site for Carum verticillatum (Whorled Caraway) in the whole of vice-county 104 is near Sligachan and was checked this year and found to be flourishing.
Martin Perry reported Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell), which is rare on Skye, from Loch Coruisk. Given that this plant is common on Eigg and Muck, it seems possible that south-western Skye might yield more records, especially if visited in July and August when flowers make it more obvious.
A day in the Kyleakin Hills to re-find earlier records of Arctostaphylos alpinus (Alpine Bearberry), Loiseleuria procumbens (Trailing Azalea) and Sibbaldia procumbens (Sibbaldia or Least Cinquefoil) was successful on all counts. Other pleasures included Hieracium holosericeum (a mountain hawkweed) in large numbers and some Lycopodium clavatum (Stag's-horn Clubmoss) with curiously curly cones:
It was also good to find Epilobium anagallidifolium (Alpine Willowherb) from a 10 km square where it had never been recorded before. It is not uncommon in northern Skye but the last record in the Kyleakin Hills was from Ben Aslak in 1973.
The only extant site on Skye for Carex hirta (Hairy Sedge) is at Armadale. It was looking fine this year. I found a second site with a few plants a few years ago but it seems to have gone – perhaps washed into the sea.
Various newly available Herbarium United records such as Vaccinium uliginosum (Bog Bilberry) from a mountain near Luib looked interesting. This was catalogued as Luib, Skye but this species has never been recorded in v.c. 104. However, Luib, Stirling in NN42 is in the centre of the known distribution for this species and this and several other specimens appear to belong there.
Sadly, a putative Poa flexuosa (Wavy Hair-grass) specimen from the Trotternish Ridge, which would have been new to the vice-county, was determined as P. glauca (Glaucous Meadow-grass) which is not that uncommon locally.
Raasay
Solidago canadensis (Canadian Goldenrod), which is new to Raasay, was noted as a garden throw-out in Inverarish.
The specimen of Araucaria araucana (Monkey-puzzle) by the Raasay sawmill developed a good crop of cones this year. There are some older cones as well as the fresh ones so it must have fruited, if that is the right term, last year as well. It is clearly a female and the cones are all on the southwest-facing side of the tree.
An afternoon with the pupils of Raasay Primary School went well with much interest in the plants taken in and the construction of simple keys to identify different thistles and yellow-flowered plants. Next time we will go on a field trip!
Eigg
Heather McHaffie spotted some proliferative Cynosurus cristatus (Crested Dog’s-tail) on Eigg in September. According to the new BSBI Grasses Handbook such specimens are common late in the season.
Canna
Robert and Anne Arnold tell me that they have seen Mertensia maritima (Oysterplant) on Sanday (Canna) at intervals from 1995 to 2009. These include the first VC records post-1999.
Muck
The following native plants found during an August visit are probably new to Muck. In a couple of cases it is hard to be sure as there are previous records for NM48 which covers most of Eigg and a part of Muck. However, they are not shown as present on Muck in “The Botanist in Skye and Adjacent Islands”:
- Agrostis vinealis Brown Bent
- Carex lasiocarpa Slender Sedge
- Carex x fulva C. hostiana x viridula
- Juncus ambiguus Frog Rush
- Polygonum oxyspermum subsp. raii Ray’s Knotgrass
- Rosa caesia subsp. glauca Glaucous Dog-rose
- Spergularia media Greater Sea-spurrey
Rum
Kevin Walker reported new sites for Gnaphalium sylvaticum (Heath Cudweed) at Kilmory, Hammarbya paludosa (Bog Orchid) at Samhnan Insir, Rhynchospora fusca (Brown Beak-sedge) at Loch nan Eala, Kinloch Glen and Ajuga pyramidalis (Pyramidal Bugle) in at least two new tetrads.
Stephen Bungard
18 December 2009
|
