The past week has produced a number of good finds. On Sunday I went to Borreraig in NG15 in the hope of re-finding a 1991 record of Neottia ovata (Common Twayblade). I failed on that, but right where I parked the car there was Glechoma hederacea (Ground-ivy), new to NG15. A path has been mown down to the shore and some benches placed there. There has also been some planting, including Carex pendula (Pendulous Sedge), Gunnera tinctoria (Giant-rhubarb) (both new to NG15) and Libertia formosa (Chilean-iris) (new to the vice-county).
All in all, I added eight species to the NG15 list.
A passing visit to Portree allowed me to check up on the Logfia minima (Small Cudweed) and take a photo of it before it has shrivelled up, though it is still not that impressive:
On Tuesday, Steve and I surveyed a square in Broadford for the Urban Flora of Scotland project. Steve showed me his recent finds of Fumaria officinalis subsp. officinalis (Common Fumitory) and Arum italicum (Italian Lords-and-Ladies), both new to NG62 and each with only one previous record in VC104 (though F. officinalis with no subspecies specified has a few more records).
We added a few more garden escapes to the NG62 list and Pilosella caespitosa (Yellow Fox-and-cubs) to the vice-county list.
I think that a rose, which was also present in the monad Neil and I covered a few weeks ago, is Rosa ‘Hollandica’ – a hybrid of Rosa rugosa (Japanese Rose) and an uncertain second parent.
Afterwards, I went to try and see some things that Joanna had found in an adjacent monad and stumbled over Trifolium campestre (Hop Trefoil), the first localised record for Skye – two earlier ones being at the 10 km square level and undated.
On Wednesday it was off to Waternish Point with Neil to try and locate something he spotted looking very dead in the depths of winter eighteen months ago. We couldn’t find whatever it was, which was a shame as it had a fungus on it that would probably have been easy to name if we had been sure of the host. However, we added 30, 41 and 25 taxa to the plant lists for three tetrads on the west side of Waternish Point and it was good to see Lysimachia tenella (Bog Pimpernel) in two of them.
We spotted some leaf mines on Cochlearia officinalis (Common Scurvygrass) which I am leaving Neil to sort out. They look like fly mines to me.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 