Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

Katherine told me that there is Saxifraga hirsuta (Kidney Saxifrage) at Gesto so yesterday I had a look.  There is quite a bit of it across the road from the boundary to the grounds of Gesto House from whence it no doubt originated.

The house, the central core of which may date from circa 1760, is derelict. The Macleods of Gesto settled here in 1425 -see here. It apparently had a fine garden in its heyday but there is no sign now, apart perhaps from some mature trees.

Saxifraga hirsuta at Gesto

The only previous records for VC 104 are from Rum. Its presence in the mountains of Rum remains unexplained. It is native to Ireland but alien in Britain.

John has found Atriplex x gustafssoniana (A. longipes x prostrata) at Edinbane. We do not have A. longipes (Long-stalked Orache) as far as we know in VC104 but John Akeroyd (BSBI Atriplex referee) says “A. longipes, a plant of tall herb communities in saltmarsh-freshwater marsh transitions, is almost never present: the hybridisation events are probably historical and may well involve complex introgressive hybridisation.”

Atriplex x gustafssoniana                       Note stalked bracteoles

This is the third known site on Skye and the first record since 1993.

On Sunday I visited these two lochs in Sleat each in a tetrad with very few records and those that did exist mostly referred to plants in the lochs. They turned out to be even more interesting than the earlier records suggested and I made reasonable plant lists for the two tetrads.

Loch na Doireanach had a wide range of aquatics including Subularia aquatica (Awlwort) and Utricularia intermedia agg. very probably Utricularia stygia (Nordic Bladderwort), the latter with an inflorescence, something I have never seen before. I have sent a specimen to Sarah for her to check the species from the quadrifid hairs in the bladders.

Loch Mhic Charmhiceal still had the Hippuris vulgaris (Mare’s-tail) first spotted by Carl in 2004, but also, notably, Sparganium emersum (Unbranched Bur-reed) with broad, keeled stem leaves and well-separated burs.  There was more presumed Utricularia stygia (Nordic Bladderwort) nearby and six species of dragonflies & damselflies.

I didn’t do well at taking photos i.e. I didn’t take any except this view of the Allt Leth-shithein:

Allt Leth-shithein

Saturday was a very useful day on Canna. Peter kindly drove me as far west as Tarbert so that there was plenty of time to reach the far west end of the island. Before this visit tetrads NG20B, C & D had 0, 6 and 0 taxa recorded. Now that reads 33 (not much land), 147 and 2 (almost no land above high water).

We added two species to the Canna list: Rosa caesia subsp. vosagiaca (Glaucous Dog-rose) and Juncus ranarius (Frog Rush) and re-found three that had not been recorded since before 2000: Calystegia sepium (Hedge Bindweed), Carex x fulva (Empty Sedge) and Nasturtium officinale sensu stricto (Water-cress).

Other good finds included Lemna minor (Common Duckweed) and Orobanche alba (Thyme Broomrape) and it was good to see lots of Anagallis tenella (Bog Pimpernel):

Anagallis tenella on Canna

I had a look at the NTS field at Kirkton that had been seeded with wildflower seed about five years ago and it is looking pretty good. If I had happened across it without knowing the history I would have thought it a reasonably rich meadow. It will be interesting to follow its development.

After that I visited a tetrad in VC105 with no records not far from Lochcarron in a 10 km square that needs more recording before 2020. There were some interesting sedge plants that I initially thought to be hybrids but am now wondering if they have been affected by the partial shade where they are growing:

Expert opinion has been sought……

I also found Vicia sativa subsp. segetalis (Common Vetch), a subspecies never recorded in VC104:

Vicia sativa subsp. segetalis

and perhaps less welcome, Cotoneaster horizontalis (Wall Cotoneaster):

Cotoneaster horizontalis