Hawkweeds

I have been a bit remiss about Hieracium spp. (Hawkweeds) over the years, generally recording them as the aggregate and occasionally sending a few for expert determination. Last year I collected eleven from Raasay and Skye and recently sent ten of them away having lost one. It probably got thrown out accidentally in a grand clean-out, but could yet turn up.

The results came back immediately from David McCosh and turned out to be of six different microspecies of which the most interesting is H. praesigne (Distinguished Hawkweed). I don’t know whether the vernacular name refers to its dignified appearance or whether it was named in frustration by someone finally sorting it out from similar species.

This turns out to be only the eighth record for Scotland – and the second for the east coast of Raasay. It was previously recorded by Alan Stirling in 1969 at Druim an Aonaich, 4 km north of the new site and in a different 10 km square of the National Grid.

Here is the one that got away:

Hieracium from Invertote (1)

Hieracium from Invertote (2)

East side of Loch Harport

Today I ventured into NG3635 on the East side of Loch Harport from the estuary of the Sumardale River south-eastwards.I was hoping to re-find Hymenophyllum wilsonii (Wilson’s Filmy-fern) from 1967. Success:

Hymenophylum wilsonii

and also Juniperus communis (Juniper), Osmunda regalis (Royal Fern), Polystichum aculeatum (Hard Shield-fern) from 1977. I found two out of three:

Ancient Juniper (and Ivy)

Polystichum aculeatum

I recorded 83 taxa of which 6 were new to the tetrad and 16 had not been recorded since before 2000.

Second Half of 2016

A report on the last six months of 2016 is on the VC104 page of the BSBI website. It adds nothing to what has been reported here. It was perhaps the thinnest six months for several years in terms of exciting new discoveries, mostly because I tended to be away from the area whenever the weather was fine and home when it was filthy.