Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

The stall at the Raasay Together festival seemed to go well with several people joining Skye Botany Group and more wanting a walk on Raasay in the summer to look at some of the flora. I gave a short talk highlighting three habitats (Peatlands, Jurassic Limestone, and Atlantic Hazel – Temperate Rain-forest) and showed off some of our rarer plants with slides like this:

Joanna & Julian kindly came to help and brought a Name That Plant quiz with them which was attempted by many.

I displayed a poster showing six of the 241 moths I have recorded at West Suisnish.

However, the night before I had put out a moth trap. I only caught one but it was new, so that figure is now 242!

My report of botanical activity in vice-county 104 during 2022 is available here.

My total for adult moth species here in West Suisnish stands at 241 as of the end of 2022. New in 2022 were:

• Brindled Ochre (Dasypolia templi)
• Brown China-mark (Elophila nymphaeata)
• Buck’s-horn Groundling (Scrobipalpa samadensis)
• Festooned Roller (Ancylis geminana)
• Pale Pinion (Lithophane social)
• Pearl Grass-veneer (Catoptria pinella)
• Puss Moth (Cerura vinula)
• Red Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe spadicearia)
• Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella)
• Twin-spotted Quaker (Anorthoa munda)

During the year I found one micro-moth (on Skye – see here) that was new to the vice-county: Monochroa tenebrella sometimes called Common Plain Neb.

I am running a Biodiversity Stall at the forthcoming Raasay Together festival on 25th March. Perhaps more on this later.