While I was away for three weeks, Skye Nature Group went to Trumpan and Halistra Loch. It was apparently a very wet day but in Halistra Loch they managed to re-find four species that had not been recorded in the whole of NG26 since last century: Eleogiton fluitans (Floating Club-rush), Potamogeton praelongus (Long-stalked Pondweed), Sparganium angustifolium (Floating Bur-reed) and Sparganium natans (Least Bur-reed).
Sparganium angustifolium. A wet day at Halistra Loch Image: S Gibson
The day after we got home I took the Skye Botany Group to a limestone outcrop near An -t-Sron, north of Camusunary. This was the last SBG outing of the year and a good time was had by all. In tetrad NG51J we made 116 records of which 59 were new and 10 were firsts since pre-2000. Dipping briefly into NG51E we made 62 records of which 29 were new and one was a first since pre-2000. (New and firsts are slightly overstated owing to a small number of subsp. records etc. e.g. Pedicularis sylvatica subsp. sylvatica cf. Pedicularis sylvatica.)
We found Vicia sylvatica (Wood Vetch), which is not common on Skye and even less so away from the coast, and also spotted an adder, a slow-worm, a couple of toads and this Rush Veneer:
Rush Veneer
Meanwhile, John has had a go at the Gesto square and added nearly 90 taxa to the tetrad including Castanea sativa (Sweet Chestnut), Nothofagus obliqua (Roble), Olearia x haastii (Daisy-bush) and the dreaded Cortaderia richardii (Early Pampas-grass). He has also started on NG25V near Fairy Bridge and is adding good species like Neottia cordata (Lesser Twayblade), Comarum palustre (Marsh Cinquefoil) and Drosera anglica (Great Sundew). I feel he has been lurking in the bog.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 