Today I visited two known Raasay sites for Gnaphalium sylvaticum (Heath Cudweed). The first is a forest track where there were nearly 400 rosettes of which about 30% gave rise to flowering stalks. Ther were some very fine specimens e.g.:
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
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 
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