Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

The Hinnisdale River was the third Scottish site for Equisetum x trachyodon (E. hyemale x variegatum) (Mackay’s Horsetail) and this hybrid had not been recorded on Skye since 1996.  Today  I went to find it and did so with little problem at the first site I tried:

Equisetum x trachyodon on Skye

I saw it on Rum a few years ago but this is my first sighting on Skye.

I turned to tetrad-bashing down the river and along the coast to the north where there was lots of Salicornia (Glasswort):

Salicornia. Anyone fancy identifying the species?

and Suaeda maritima (Annual Sea-blite):

Suaeda maritima

plus Ligusticum scoticum (Scots Lovage) etc.  I also spotted a good patch of Mentha avensis (Corn Mint) which is not common here.

Mertensia on Sanday

and other useful records.

I think Anne and Robert may be willing to search out Skye sites for Mertensia too……

Gnaphalium sylvaticum on forest track, Raasay

The planting of the forest and provision of the track brought about this habitat and gave this nationally scarce species a real boost.  It likes open forest tracks. However, the growth of new Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce) will be the death of it in a couple of decades:

Sitka Spruce invading the site

The second site is rather different but also man-made.  Spoil heaps from the first world war Raasay iron mine are now covered by short vegetation and in there I counted nearly 200 plants, looking rather different:

Gnaphalium sylvaticum on old spoil heap

On Friday we went to Neist Point, the most westerly point on Skye,  where I added a number of records but failed to re-find the Anagllis tenella (Bog Pimpenel).  We were lucky to see a pod of Minke Whales disporting themselves just offshore and could have watched them for hours.  Poor photo:

Minke

Another highspot was the sighting of three Arctic Skuas, though the resident gulls were less pleased.

Other views of Neist Point:

In the evening we dined at Ullinish Country Lodge Hotel  which was up to its usual high standards of food. Outside I spotted Glechoma hederacea (Ground-ivy), a known site but the first post-1999 record on Skye, and Senecio sylvaticus (Heath Groundsel) which is scattered on waste ground, forest tracks and at the top of sandy shores.

Thursday, where do I start?  The first objective was to re-find earlier records of Arctostaphylos alpinus (Alpine Bearberry), Loiseleuria procumbens (Trailing Azalea) and Sibbaldia procumbens (Sibbaldia or Least Cinquefoil).

In all of these I was successful.  I had seen the Loiseleuria at this site in 1998 but it was good to see it still there. The Arctostaphylos was at the only known site in the vice-county, first recorded in 1772 by John Lightfoot but not recorded again until 1990 by my illustrious predecessor as VCR, Mrs C. W. Murray. 

Arctostaphylos alpinus on Ben Bhuide, Skye

The Sibbaldia was also at a site found by Catriona Murray and was flourishing:

Sibbaldia in the Kyleakin Hills

I have never seen Sibbaldia in flower on Skye.

Some other  pleasures included Hieracium holosericeum (A mountain hawkweed) in large numbers:

Hieracium holosericeum in the Kyleakin Hills

and Lycopodium clavatum (Stag’s-horn Clubmoss) doing some strange things:

Curly Lycopodium clavatum

It was also a pleasure to find Epilobium anagallidifolium (Alpine Willowherb) from the 10km square NG72 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 NG71 in 1973.

During the day I reached the summits of Beinne na Greine (611m), Sgurr na Coinnich (739m) and Beinn Bhuidhe (488m).

On Wednesday I toured Dun Caan and Meall Daimh on Raasay, first and foremost to see if I could locate some non-standard Epilobium (Willowherb) plants I had seen over ten years ago.  I had hopes that they might be Epilobium x haynaldianum (E. palustre x alsinifolium) but all I found was E. palustre.

However, I also checked populations of Carex pauciflora (Few-flowered Sedge), Cryptogramma crispa (Parsley Fern), Diphasiastrum alpinum (Alpine Clubmoss), Dryopteris oreades (Mountain Male-fern) and Salix herbacea (Dwarf Willow) and was whistled at by Golden Plovers.

Dryopteris oreades on Meall Daimh, Raasay

On Monday James Merryweather led an SWT meeting on non-flowering plants and lichens on Skye.  The weather was pretty wet but we had a successful day. A relatively short time outside allowed us to bring specimens indoors for further study.

The next meeting is on Wednesday 29th July and is a Butterfly & Bird walk:  Nostie to Avernish led by Brian Neath.

The British Lichen Society have been on Raasay for a field meeting and on Saturday I gave them a talk on the flora of Raasay which seemed to go down OK.  I also provided a socket set to mend a broken Landrover handle, a postcode for a card to a fellow member, a list of Raasay spiders  and a frozen woodlouse from Rona , the last two for one of the group who was looking at invertebrates rather than lichens.

The weather had been pretty good for them but Sunday and Monday have been wet.

Goodyera repens at Balmacara

On Saturday we walked to Dalavil and on the way I spotted four plants of Hypericum humifusum (Trailing St John’s-wort). This is a site that has been known for some years but this is the first record on Skye since pre-2000, though there are recent records from Rum and Eigg. 

Hypericum humifusum on Skye

There will now be a break of about a week before the next blog entry.

On Thursday I visited Sleat. My first stop was to the only extant site on Skye for Carex hirta (Hairy Sedge).  It was looking fine. I found a second site with  a few plants a few years ago but it seems to have gone – perhaps washed into the sea.

After that I went to see the Vicia orobus (Wood Bitter-vetch) reported by Pat & Roger Cottis (see post of 5 July) so that I could complete a form for the Threatened Plants Project.  Like them I only found one plant but is has become very hard to spot in a tall sward now that it has finished flowering.

Continuing along the coast  to the west I was pleased to find Sagina nodosa (Knotted Pearlwort) and two plants of Centaurium erythraea (Common Centaury), both species flowering well.  I didn’t think to take any photos but here is one of an unusual shingle plant from the same area:

Aspen on the beach

Other nice finds included Anagallis tenella (Bog Pimpernel), Carex otrubae (False Fox-sedge), Ligusticum scoticum (Scots Lovage), Stellaria graminea (Lesser Stitchwort) and Tanacetum vulgare (Tansy).