Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

This feels outside my usual area of competence but I have correctly identified Hieracium chloranthum (Green-flowered Hawkweed) from two sites on Skye.   No other species has such greenish stylose ligules.  I sent one from near Sconser to David McCosh who confirmed its identity and I saw the same thing on Castle Ewen in the Fairy Glen in June.  Stupidly I have no photograph to offer. This species was recorded previously on Castle Ewen in the 1880s by W.R. & E.F Linton, is known elsewhere on Skye and is widespread in northern Scotland

Just because I said there was no Giant Hogweed in Skye one has appeared in Portree:

Felled Giant

First spotted by Tim Moore of Skye Linen Services whose business is close by, it has now received several visitors, one of whom felled it.  However, more needs to be done to guarantee no seeds.

Michael Usher has been for a brief visit to Canna and armed with my list of plants not seen since before the year 2000 has knocked off 18 or 19 of them:

* to be confirmed.

Of these, I am particularly pleased with the Cakile maritima (Sea Rocket) which was last recorded on Canna in 1953.

It looks as though the Apium inundatum (Lesser Marshwort) has really gone from An t-Oban as it fills in with reeds, which is a shame as that was the only confirmed site in the vice-county.  I couldn’t find any in 2009 and Michael has not found any this year.

On 14th July Nick told me that he had just seen a bluebell in flower asking if this was a late record. I said it was certainly late but could not tell if it was a record record. Anyway, it isn’t now because I found this one in flower yesterday:

Late Bluebell

Sometimes plants just do not seem to have read the books and this:

Not Oak

gave me a moment’s confusion before realisation dawned that it was honeysuckle.

As well as the galls of the previous post and various invertebrates and indeed vertebrates, I recorded over 200 plant taxa in a tetrad with no previous records, 143 in a tetrad with only one previous record (which I did not find) and 156 in a third where most previous records were from the other side of Loch Harport. Whilst no great rarities were spotted, the Meadale Burn is rich and varied and I found Viburnum opulus (Guelder Rose) and Prunus padus (Bird Cherry) which are both scattered on Skye in small numbers. The air quality must be good, as one would expect:

Lichen-covered Hawthorn

I also found three plants of Escallonia macrantha (Escallonia) in the burn gorge well away from habitation or a road, presumably having travelled downstream from a house or dumped roadside garden rubbish. I notice that whilst recorded for Raasay, Rum, Eigg and Muck this is actually the first record for Skye, though I feel it will have escaped elsewhere.

By the shore I spotted Agrimonia procera (Fragrant Agrimony) which again is infrequent, though some earlier records for the apparently also infrequent Agrimonia eupatoria (Agrimony) might need checking.

Agrimonia procera

At least four plants of Linaria vulgaris (Common Toadflax) have appeared in our garden. Until they flowered I had assumed that they were Linaria purpurea (Purple Toadflax) which we have had for years.

Linaria vulgaris

This is not really a plant of North-west Scotland and is not recorded from VC104.

The weekend was taken up by a workshop  based in Ullapool on the critical group of the genus Alchemilla (Lady’s-mantles).  The most interesting thing to me was the presence of lots of Alchemilla glaucescens (Silky Lady’s-mantle) on  the Durness limestone near Ullapool and Inchnadamph.

Alchemilla glaucescens

Given the extensive Durness limestone on Skye, there has to be a chance of finding this Nationally Scarce plant in VC 104.

I had hoped to see A. glomerulans (Clustered Lady’s-mantle) in the wild as well but had to be content with a specimen in a pot plus some bits from a garden-grown plant. We have one recent record from Eigg but again, I would expect it to be elsewhere.