The massed ranks of birch tree trunks put on a fine show in early spring sunshine near Lary, north of Ballater, today. Whilst in nearby heathland, the adders are beginning to become active again.
Rough horsetail in a flush near Kintallen, Argyll, today. In addition to having green stems, others were drained of chlorophyll so coloured red (belated autumn colours) or even a skeletal white.
Lovely patches of filmy-ferns on rocks at Kentallen, Argyll. These ones have fimbriate indusial valves, so I think are Tunbridge filmy-fern.
Lastly from Seil Island, soft shield-fern. Growing on wet, shaded cliffs, recorded nearby on the mainland but not beyond the Clachan Bridge (aka the Bridge Over The Atlantic).
That's an interesting prospect. I'll ask a local if there's any knowledge of changes to the shoreline. Looking back at my photos I see there's seaweed round the base of some columns. I think another visit is required to record the associates and compare with areas outwith the freshwater flushes.
Yes, that's the seashore, with seaweed, cockle shells etc. The sedge towers are in fresh water seepage on the east coast of Seil Island. There must be an element of enhanced salinity, but perhaps not much as the channel between Seil and the mainland is narrow so sheltered from the wind.
Greater tussock-sedge forming strange colemnular structures by the shore on Seil Island. One even had a rowan tree growing out of it.
The BSBI DDb only has one record for yellow saxifrage from Seil Island, dated 1993. Pleased to say it's still present in a rocky flush north of Ellenabeich. Also still identifiable with a bit more difficulty is distant sedge (last Seil record also 1993). A great place to come and update old records!
At the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Ballachuan Hazelwood reserve on Seil Island today. Apparently there's something called glue fungus that stops dead twigs falling to the ground. Perhaps that is behind the balancing act in this photo?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballach...
From what I've seen so far, Rubus polyanthemus is a common bramble on Seil Island. Took a while to find a leaf with more than 5 leaflets, but got there in the end with this magnificent 7-er!
Great to see photos of all those special sedges, surely their habitat-specificness and elegance makes Carex the genus above all others. Thank you!
Delighted to receive my copy of the new BSBI Roses Handbook. Much better entertainment during the longest nights than Christmas TV!
Heather is now on the Red List for the whole of Great Britain (Near Threatened in 2025 revision)!
Clubmosses are unhelpfully named as they are much more closely related to ferns than mosses. There are many other bits of misinformation in vernacular names of plants: grass-of-Parnassus isn't a grass; club-rushes are in the sedge family; and many more besides. If only we could start again!
Saw this patch of interrupted clubmoss from a track at Potarch, South Aberdeenshire, I've walked along many times before. I normally visit in summer, so will blame the leaves on the trees then for not having spotted it previously. An interesting setting, in birch woodland at just ca 95 m altitude.
Given my home parch is devoid of mistletoe, I make a point of looking out for it when visiting family in Hertfordshire. These ones were on some sort of maple, which was a bit unexpected.
Simon Milne, RBGE Regius Keeper, receiving one of two pre-retirement gifts from Matt Harding, BSBI Scotland Officer, in acknowledgement of his support for BSBI and the wider botanical community in Scotland. This gift? A data stick containing e-copies of each of the BSBI handbooks!
Matt Harding (BSBI) and Pete Hollingsworth (RBGE) bringing yesterday's Scottish Botanists's Conference to a close after an uplifting day of talks. workshops, poster displays and mingling amongst the ca 200 attendees. Meeting old friends and new at the SBC is highlight of the year.
Great start by Sarah Watts to today's Scottish Botanists' Conference, describing her research on restoration of Scotland's mountain woodland.
In Banchory with time to spare, I headed to Burnett Park, where the curling pond has (prob. native) floating club-rush growing side by side with (prob. introduced) frogbit. In woodland by the tennis courts is common wintergreen, a recent discovery: serrated wintergreen seems sadly to be long gone.
A good day for tiny plants at Sands of Forvie NNR today: after admiring the small adder's-tongues we went back to count them (22 plants), then noticed allseed (10 plants) which we'd missed a few minutes earlier. First allseed I've seen there after over 30 years of trying! My pinkie for scale.
Ouch. Probably many unhappy neighbouring landowners too!
Himalayan knotgrass along the Old Deeside Railway Line to the west of Aberdeen. Quite a large patch but hidden from view down the embankment and behind some bushes. Will control measures drive invasive non-natives to evolve to grow in hidden corners (as if they don't do enough of that already)?
Some lovely areas of wet heath near Boat of Garten had impressively large and dense mats of small cranberry. Given how healthy these mats looked, they had surprisingly few berries, but just a few had fully open flowers so perhaps more to come?
Perhaps you should subscribe to an acclimatisation plan involving cold showers and cooling fan on max followed by manual dexterity and acute vision tasks? Doubtless the Scottish Tourist Board would tell you it's completely unnecessary, but...
I'm sure Poland and Clement will have a character that can be used to separate Salix from Vaccinium....
Here's a nice juxtaposition from below Cairngorm earlier this week: bilberry (left) and bog bilberry (right), demonstrating differences in shape and colour of both leaves and stems.
Attractive colouration displayed by deergrass, dwarf willow and viviparous sheep's-fescue, plus curved wood-rush in a rocky hollow, some highlights of a walk from the Coire Cas car park to Ben Macdui summit.
I agree, NB also the blunt-tipped leaves.
Serrated wintergreen forms clonal patches, so several options for quantification. Do you count patches, flowering stems, leaf rosettes or estimate patch areas? Regardless, it's a lovely plant and an advantage of taking measurements is that you may discover other interesting things in the process!
