Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

Today I walked from the Bla Bheinn car park to Coire Balaig. Coire Balaig itself turned out to be pretty dull botanically but on the way there and back I made some useful records. The best from my point of view was Carex pauciflora (Few-flowered Sedge) – two sites with plenty of plants. This had no records in NG52 post-1999 and the previous records were at the opposite (NE) corner of the hectad.

Carex pauciflora (Few-flowered Sedge)

This is difficult to find except when the flowers/fruits are there and they don’t last all that long. Also, it tends to be in the middle of otherwise unexciting wet moor which is not that inviting for careful survey.

On Wednesday, I am off to Colonsay for a week in VC 102.

There was an interesting paper earlier this year in Conservation Genetics by Peter Hollingsworth and Markus Rusham at RBGE, plus collaborators in Canada and New Zealand, concerning hybridization potential between native and introduced bluebells. Using an experimental array allowing natural pollination to occur among flowering plants, and determining the paternity of offspring using microsatellite markers, they conclude that “lower reproductive success of non-natives coupled with the massive numerical advantage of natives represents a substantial constraint against ‘extinction-by-hybridization’ of H. non-scripta in the UK”. Some good news then.

Steve has spotted this planted shub at Skinadin. Please can ayone tell us what it is?

Photos: S. Terry

Later: Mike suggests  Photinia davidiana (Stranvaesia) which looks right to me. I knew it looked familiar……

Joanna and Julian have had a look at parts of NG60P in Sleat that had not been surveyed before, particularly small areas of woodland. They added nearly 50 taxa to the tetrad including Platanthera chlorantha (Greater Butterfly-orchid) and new to NG60, Carex canescens (White Sedge).

Bridgette re-found the Kalmia procumbens (Trailing Azalea) on An Diallaid. Hoorah!

Les has helped me with some willow issues so that I have settled on Salix x fragilis  (Hybrid Crack-willow) without trying to be too clever for the trees near Borve, confirmed Salix phylicifolia (Tea-leaved Willow) from Kilmauag and sorted out records for Salix x ambigua (S. aurita x repens) that had previously been mis-identified.

A recent specimen with sericeous hairs on young leaves from the S. repens parent:

Salix x ambigua

Salix x ambigua

Here on Raasay, Lisa pointed me towards an Acer with curiously purple undersides to the leaves.

Purple Sycamore

It appears to be Sycamore but why it is that colour remains a mystery.

Recently Neil reported Tellima grandiflora (Fringecups) as a garden throw-out from a lay-by in Glen Varragill and said there were other things in the discard pile too. On my way back from Geary I had a look and indeed there were, the most interesting of which is Geranium pyrenaicum (Hedgerow Crane’s-bill).

Geranium pyrenaicum (Hedgerow Crane’s-bill)

But there were also local weeds like Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale Cress) and Veronica arvensis (Wall Speedwell). These will presumably not survive for many winters out there.

Yesterday Neil and I went to the Geary Ravine SSSI and then moved south to take in some woodland along the coast in the same tetrad. We got to parts of the Geary Ravine that I had never managed before but still failed to re-find any of the quite long list of things found by John Birks over 45 years ago that have not been recorded since. I suspect as a young man doing his PhD work he got to parts that I never will now.

However, having inspected the Equisetum hyemale (Rough Horsetail) and so on, we moved south to the known site for Neottia nidus-avis (Bird’s-nest Orchid) and found just one:

Neottia nidus-avis (Bird’s-nest Orchid)

Nearby, and also a bit further away, we spotted new sites for Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine), past flowering and sadly not having set any fruits.

Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine)

We also found Bromopsis ramosa (Hairy-brome), previously recorded from the ravine but not since 1982 and Scrophularia nodosa (Common Figwort) never before recorded from this tetrad but one that had been recorded in NG26 pre-2000 only.

A very useful and enjoyable day, and nobody died.

Tetrad NG46Q was unique in the vice-county in having 100% land but no records since before 2000. In fact it only had eleven ever. On Tuesday Neil and I sorted that out with the total now being 148. Much of the lower area was pretty dull until we reached the Abhhainn Gremiscaig (as it is on the OS Map – surely Abbhainn isn’t right?). From there on, heading up the hill to the 300m mark, things perked up with Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort), Diphasiastrum alpinum (Alpine Clubmoss), Epilobium alsinifolium (Chickweed Willowherb), Saxifraga hypnoides (Mossy Saxifrage), Thalictrum alpinum (Alpine Meadow-rue), etc.

Epilobium alsinifolium

First time I’ve been on a bike for a serious ride in I don’t know how many years – but neither of us fancied taking our cars along the Lealt track.

Ranunculus bulbosus (Bulbous Buttercup) grows in the dunes at Glenbrittle beach and elsewhere in the Inner Hebrides it is to be found on sandy ground by the sea. However there are also records from Skeabost Hotel and Dunvegan Castle and yesterday I had a look at both places without success. I don’t know whether these were typical native sites or whether they had been brought in as weeds – it is a common plant farther south.

However the day was far from wasted as I found a rich stretch of river bank along the Snizort I hadn’t visited before and had a useful discussion with the Head Gardener at Dunvegan Castle where we have plans for a small project.

By the Snizort I found Iris sibirica (Siberian Iris) looking quite at home:

Iris sibirica

This is the first record of it in the wild in VC104 but it is known from mainland Scotland not far away. There was also Barbarea intermedia (Medium-flowered Winter-cress) and a Hawkweed (Hieracium sp.) that I took a specimen of for expert determination.

At Dunvegan I added a few to the tetrad including Carex extensa (Long-bracted Sedge) in the saltmarsh below the castle.  Carex otrubae (False Fox-sedge) is by the shore, seen here with a background of  Ligusticum scoticum (Scots Lovage):

Carex otrubae