Yesterday was the SWT Skye Region Group’s trip to Rum. A RIB from Elgol gave us five hours at Kilmory – or the chance to walk through and be picked up from Kinloch. I elected to spend the day in the Kilmory and Samhnan Insir area, mostly on the dunes. This proved very worthwhile. Top of the list and new to VC104 was Saxifraga tridactylites (Rue-leaved Saxifrage):
Saxifraga tridactylites on Rum
Next up were several sites for Catapodium marinum (Sea Fern-grass) recorded from this area up until 1992 but not recorded anywhere in VC104 since 1996 (on Eigg):
Catapodium marinum on Rum
There was a lot of Atriplex laciniata (Frosted Orache) along the shore. This had been recorded at Kilmory up to 1997 but it was not found during the years of recording for The Flora of Rum.
Atriplex laciniata on Rum
I also found six plants of Polygonum oxyspermum subsp. raii (Ray’s Knotgrass), another plant that had been recorded there before (until 1984) but not found during the Flora surveys. Maybe the grazing pressure has reduced.
Polygonum oxyspermum subsp. raii on Rum
There were also, of course, lots of plants that were seen during the Flora surveys from Cakile maritima (Sea Rocket) to Ophioglossum azoricum (Small Adder’s-tongue) and Cerastium semidecandrum (Little Mouse-ear) to Equisetum x trachyodon (Mackay’s Horsetail (E. hyemale x variegatum)).
In the dunes there were Garden Snails (Cornu aspersum) and in the boggy bits away from the dunes lots of Bog Beacons (Mitrula paludosa), these according to NBN being first records for Rum, though I haven’t delved any deeper into other record sources.
Tags: Fungi, Plants, Slugs & Snails
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 
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