Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

Skye Nature Group’s excursion to Sleat on Wednesday took us to Tormore and to Fairy Glen below Calligarry. These were in tetrads that had been covered pretty well for vascular plants but there were still a number of significant finds.

We added Atriplex prostrata s.s. (Spear-leaved Orache), Crocosmia pottsii (Pott’s Montbretia), Elymus x laxus (E. junceiformis x repens), Larix kaempferi (Japanese Larch) and Sagina nodosa (Knotted Pearlwort) to the list for the 10km square NG60.

Sagina nodosa

We added a new site for Ammophila arenaria (Marram), the fourth on Skye in recent times apart from Glenbrittle Beach – all along a short stretch of the Sleat shoreline. There was also Leymus arenarius (Lyme-grass) – only the fifth Skye site in recent times – and Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine) and Ophioglossum vulgatum (Adder’s-tongue) were growing together at a known site.

The Cotoneaster integrifolius (Entire-leaved Cotoneaster) at Tormore was doing rather too well:

Cotoneaster integrifolius

I was pleased to find galls caused by the mite Phyllocoptes goniothorax on Hawthorn. I saw lots of these on Colonsay but there are no records in VC104 on NBN.

Phyllocoptes goniothorax galls on Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn)

Neil and/or Seth spotted some fine galls on Oenanthe crocata (Hemlock Water-dropwort) that look to me like those caused by the fungus Protomyces macrosporus:

Protomyces macrosporus on Oenanthe crocata

but I await their views. Also there was a mass of pea galls on Rosa vosagiaca (Glaucous Dog-rose):

Rose Pea Galls

I spent a week on Colonsay with five other botanists refreshing my skills in sand dune and sandy soil habitats, amongst other things. An excellent week in which I learnt about several new galls, saw a Small Copper butterfly, which I have never seen on Skye/Raasay and found nice things in the local context like Atriplex laciniata (Frosted Orache) and Orobanche alba (Thyme Broomrape).

I made the most of my refreshed and new skills by going to Canna/Sanday on Saturday. On summer Saturdays it is possible to have over eight hours on the islands by catching the 0730 ferry from Mallaig and leaving Canna on the 1820.

This proved very useful as I re-found 1930s records in the Sanday dunes for Catapodium marinum (Sea Fern-grass) and Trifolium campestre (Hop Trefoil). In both cases these are only the second recent records for the vice-county, the others being on Rum and Eigg respectively.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I also inadvertently made the first Canna/Sanday record and therefore the first NG20 record for several species including Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort), Carex remota (Remote Sedge) and Scrophularia auriculata (Water Figwort), the last looking like a recent import at the ferry terminal.

Even more importantly, I made the first VC104 record for Polygonum boreale (Northern Knotgrass), distinguished from P. aviculare by having oblong-ovate, petiolate leaves (and large nuts, but it is too early in the year for that to be apparent).

This is a species that was thought to be restricted to the Northern Isles but has since been found in the Outer Isles and Tiree and Colonsay.

The dipteran Janetiella frankumi makes this gall on Rosa spinosissima (Burnet Rose):

Janetiella frankumi

Simon showed it to me on Colonsay, and there it was on Canna.

So much more I could write but I must get on with entering records into the database……

Following on from my visit to Ullinish a week or so ago, I recently visited the next tetrad to the west which includes Colbost Point. Here there is “coral” beach like the more famous one north of Dunvegan, albeit on a smaller scale, but one that is rarely visited.

Near Colbost Point

and here there was Sedum acre (Biting Stonecrop) as reported in 1969.

Sedum acre (Biting Stonecrop)

Sadly, I didn’t find Sagina nodosa (Knotted Pearlwort), also reported in 1969 from “above the coral beach”. It should have been possible to find, though flowering is over, as Joanna demonstrated last week by showing me a piece she had found at Kinloch. Both these species are pretty infrequent on Skye.

Other nice species in a Skye context included a single very immature specimen of Cakile maritima (Sea Rocket) that is unlikely to set fruit and therefore will be gone by next year, Centunculus minimus (Chaffweed), Lythrum salicaria (Purple-loosestrife) and Mentha arvensis (Corn Mint).

Several plants of Plantago lanceolata (Ribwort Plantain) had galls caused by the nematode Ditylenchus dipsaci:

Plantago lanceolata nematode gall

I think this is my first nematode record!

Just south of Duntulm is Cnoc Roll and to the south of that an old birch woodland. This is in tetrad NG47B and yesterday Skye Botany Group visited the area to improve a rather poorly recorded tetrad. It was a bit wet and windy but could have been far worse and we recorded 177 vascular plants of which 84 were new to the tetrad and six new to hectad NG47 (with a few qualifications around subspecies and aggregates).

Perhaps the most surprising of the additions (surprising that it was an addition, not that it was there) was Salix cinerea subsp. oleifolia (Rusty Willow) which is common across Skye at low altitudes.

We found Rose Pea Gall on Rosa sherardii (Sherard’s Downy-rose). There are two smooth RPGs (like this one) caused by gall wasps which “cannot be safely distinguished without rearing the adult”. There were no larvae or pupae so it goes down as Diplolepis eglanteriae agg. There are not many records for either species or the aggregate in Scotland.

Rose Pea Gall on Rosa sherrdii

Botanists and horticulturalists are used to the concept of National Collections e.g. of Willows or Oaks. We think we may have spotted the National Bath Collection (thanks Wheldon!) yesterday:

On the way I had stopped at Lochan nan Dùnan to see Seth’s Lythrum portula (Water-purslane). As he had said, there is a great deal of it around and in the lochan.

Lythrum portula (Water-purslane)

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.

Joyce showed me around Knott on Thursday and we added 79 plants to the list for tetrad NG35W which was clearly a bit under-recorded previously.  There were lots of Gymnadenia borealis (Heath Fragrant-orchid) and Platanthera chlorantha (Greater Butterfly-orchid) and also many Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Common Spotted-orchid), plus a few planted specimens opposite a garden. Near Tayinloan Lodge there was a lot of what I think is naturalised Sorbaria sorbifolia (Sorbaria) as well as the Lysichiton americanus (American Skunk-cabbage) that Joyce had told me about earlier in the year. There is also a mature planted Chilean Flame Tree (Embothrium coccineum), but I don’t think it merits formal recording.

I went on to the north to Rubha nan Cudaigean and added 61 plants to the list for that tetrad, earlier records all being from the other side of Loch Snizort Beag around Kingsburgh. Nice things included Blysmus rufus (Saltmarsh Flat-sedge) and Carex oederi (Small-fruited Yellow-sedge).

I didn’t do well with the camera but I shall go back for a pondweed that I couldn’t reach without a grapnel, so may take a few more photos next time.

Here is a Hawthorn Gall that may be caused by Dysaphis ranunculi, the Hawthorn-buttercup mealy gall aphid, but if it turns red later it may be one of the Dysaphis crataegi group (the Hawthorn-umbellifer aphids).

Dysaphis ranunculi gall, maybe