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: