Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

I am not a fan of Cortaderia richardii (Early Pampas-grass) and it is spreading. I found a site in a new hectad a few days ago – between Osmigarry and Score. So the VC104 distribution map now looks like this:

Most VC104 sites are roadside but in some places, including Raasay, it is also across the moor.

The hectad distribution map for the British Isles is here.

Natural England describe it in “Horizon-scanning for invasive non-native plants in Great Britain” as one of 59 non-native potentially invasive plants ranked as Critical i.e. needing detailed risk assessment as a matter of priority.

Plantlife have the same view.

This plant is endemic to New Zealand where it is also known as Tussock Grass and it has also been introduced into Tasmania. At least some authorities say that it should be renamed Austroderia richardii.

The Royal Horticultural Society gave this plant an Award of Garden Merit in 2002 which was reconfirmed after trial in 2009.

These may say more about recording effort than anything else but the BSBI Distribution Database allows the construction of maps like these:

Carex species per hectad

Charophyte species per Hectad

I think Steve will be pleased – we discussed achieving this via MapMate some time ago and, apart from orchids for which there is a specific filter, basically gave up.

The BSBI Distribution Database is a wondrous thing. It has become so good that I am now struggling to think of questions to ask it.

For example, things that take hardly any time:

Taxa per tetrad 2000- present in VC104

Altitude Range for Alchemilla alpina & A. glabra in VC104

A view of how recording for Atlas 2020 is going by hectad (10km square):

A history of hectad records for taxa, here exemplified by some sedges:

I may never want to go out in the field again…..

Distribution maps of taxa, and read-only access to the ‘message board’ are available to anyone; you do not have to have a login password. The database is here.

Some time ago I mentioned Andrew Currie’s Herbarium. Soon after that, Marion Moir and Keith Sadler took roughly half each and catalogued the sheets in great detail on a spreadsheet provided by Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The sheets were then transferred to RBGE where they will become part of the general herbarium.

There were c. 1800 sheets of which c 75% were from the UK (63% from Scotland). The vice-counties with the most sheets were:

There were rather few from local VCs, VC97 (1), VC104 (6), VC105 (36).

This was a tremendous effort and much appreciated by RBGE and BSBI.  Thanks are also due to other members of Skye Botany Group who offered to help in various ways.