I started Thursday with a visit to Borve to see Neil’s oddly behaving Rowan. One branch has a leaf that has not divided like normal rowan leaves whilst the others have very fine leaflets:
Odd Sorbus aucuparia
The rest of the tree looks entirely normal. The only explanation anybody has come up with is a plant virus, but even Tim Rich, author of Whitebeams, Rowans and Service Trees of Britain and Ireland, says he has never seen anything like it.
On to Uig where Seth had found a verge full of garden escapes/throw-outs including Armoracia rusticana (Horse-radish), Echium plantagineum (Purple Viper’s-bugloss) and Iberis umbellata (Garden Candytuft) all new to the vice-county. Thanks to David for identification of the Echium.
Echium plantagineum
Iberis umbellata showing horned fruits
There was also a second, white, Iberis (so determined from the zygomorphic flowers i.e. two large and two small petals) but this does not have the distinctive fruits of Iberis umbellata, leaving us all a little puzzled.
Iberis sp.
Seth, Neil, Wheldon and I then had a prowl at Ru Idrigill/Creagile in NG36R and recorded 148 plant taxa of which 52 were new to the tetrad. There was a variety of other things we spotted, but to pick out a couple of galls:
Brachycolus cerastii (aphid) galls on Cerastium fontanum
and a stunning gall on hawthorn fruits:
Gymnosporangium clavariiforme on Crataegus monogyna. Image: N Roberts
Thanks to Seth for determinations – and to Neil and Wheldon (as well as Seth) for finding a fine collection of things.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 
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