Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

Yesterday and today I visited five 1 km squares on Raasay with pre-2000 records for Orchis mascula (Early-purple Orchid). I only re-found it in one. Partly this is because I only had four-figure grid references  and 15-20 years have passed since I last recorded them. Also, some of the sites are quite well grazed by sheep this year.  Anyway, here is the 1 km square map of records for Raasay before this weekend:

where red squares are pre-2000 and black dots more recent records. The middle of the N-S line of three red squares in the south-east of the island now has a black dot in the middle.

The first Dactylorhiza maculata (Heath Spotted-orchid) are in flower:

Dactylorhiza maculata

I found this tachinid fly Gymnocheta viridis which is one of HBRG’s TRY species and is a bit short of records in the Highlands:

Also, I found  Rhododendron Bud Blast (Pycnostysanus azaleae):

Pycnostysanus azaleae

which is also a bit short of Highland records:There were quite a few Common Heath moths about and I got a better photo today:

Common Heath (female)

Getting back to plants, there was a large patch of Symphytum tuberosum (Tuberous Comfrey) where I had not spotted it before. It is well established along the road near Raasay House and also in the grounds but this was a little way outside.

Symphytum tuberosum

Yesterday, Alasdair had a dead female Emperor Moth caught in a spider’s web and a couple of days ago I had this very fine-looking sawfly:

Sawfly

As we have no-one within Highland Region who can determine these, I let it free – probably to lay eggs on my gooseberry bushes.

Looking at my distribution maps, I noticed a group of three complete (i.e. no sea) tetrads with no records just south and south-east of Edinbane. So after a stop at Lyndale I parked in Edinbane and headed south along the Abhainn Choishleadar. There are quite a few Euclapytus trees along this burn which I think are E. pulchella (White Peppermint-gum) but deserve another check when I am next passing just in case they are E. niphophila (Snow Gum).

Pressing on into the target tetrads, I managed a reasonably thorough look at NG34P plus brief excursions into the southwest of NG34U and the northwest of NG34T. I have yet to enter the records into my database but the species numbers clearly reflect the time spent in the various areas.  Most of the plants were what you would expect, though not dull, ranging from Populus tremula (Aspen) on the rocky side of burns to Carex limosa (Bog-sedge) in liquid bogs.  A number of sedges are now in flower such as Carex dioica, C. nigra, C. sylvatica and C. limosa:

Carex limosa in flower

A long stretch of the wind farm track has Spergularia rubra (Sand Spurrey), a typical place to find it. At the base of wind turbine #1 there was a single plant that I couldn’t identify. There was a second at the base of wind turbine #2 and seven near wind turbine #3. All bar one are in the imported gravel and I suspect that is their provenance.

Unknown – Pic 1

Unknown – Pic 2

The very distinctive leaves look vaguely familiar – though not, I think, from Skye botanising.  There were dead stalks from last year about 25cm tall, so if I can’t work out what it is from the leaves I shall probably go back and find flowers later in the year.  All help gratefully received. I have failed to get there from John Poland’s Vegetative Key.

Other sightings included a Common Heath moth (Thanks, Brian):

Common Heath

A lichen that I took to be a pure fungus (Thanks, Dave):

Lichenomphalia umbellifera

Red Deer

Hind

and what I am fairly sure is a red deer skull:

Skull

The burns were full after the previous night’s rain and it was as well to have been wearing wellies: