The End of the First Half

It is 30th June and there are over 7,700 records from 2017 in the database – and Joanna has several completed cards to give me from her time on Skye. With the aid of a grapnel, she found Nitella translucens (Translucent Stonewort) in Loch Corlarach, north of Dunvegan – only the second Skye record though known on Raasay, Rum and Soay. She also fished out a second charophyte which I am still fretting about.

Nitella translucens (Translucent Stonewort)

She also found a small sedge which we think is Carex caryophyllea (Spring-sedge) but I have sent it away for an expert view. I have also sent a Callitriche away for further assistance.

Meanwhile, Steve has sent nearly 600 records from June including Echium vulgare (Viper’s-bugloss) from the Aird of Sleat. Quite a few years ago, there was a lot in a garden in Harrapool along with other oddities from a wildflower seed mix.  I never recorded it as it didn’t escape from the garden. Where this one came from is currently unknown.

Echium vulgare Photo: S. Terry

He and Tim also found the Californian Phacelia tanacetifolia (Blue Tansy) planted at Tormore. There may be other strange things about from “native” wildflower seeds.

Steve has also found more Dactylorhiza traunsteinerioides (Narrow-leaved Marsh-orchid), Paris quadrifolia (Herb-paris) and re-found the Gentianella amarella (Autumn Gentian) at Torrin.

Gentianella amarella Photo: S. Terry

Macleod’s Maidens and Beyond

Macleod’s Maidens

It is a fair old walk out to Macleod’s Maidens but Joanna and Julian were determined to get to tetrad NG23I which lies beyond this impressive group of sea stacks. Nick and I joined them on Thursday on what turned out to be the best weather of the week.

Previously there was a single record in the database for NG23I – Silene acaulis (Moss Campion) in 1990.  There was plenty of that:

Silene acaulis

but also we spotted nearly 50 specimens of Orobanche alba (Thyme Broomrape) and a few Carlina vulgaris (Carline Thistle):

Orobanche alba

Carlina vulgaris

Overall we recorded 132 taxa which was pretty good going given we could not get down to the shore and there is no woodland or body of fresh water.  Nick recorded over 80 bryophytes, which is unexciting but again pretty good considering the range of habitats.

On the way I spotted Juncus foliosus (Leafy Rush), a first for Skye, though known on Raasay, Rona and Rum.

Juncus foliosus (Leafy Rush)

 

 

As well as broader leaves compared with J. bufonius (Toad Rush), J. foliosus has tepals with dark lines either side of the midrib.

It was a great day for insects, with many butterflies and moths

Chimney Sweepers on Trifolium repens

and I found the rust Melampsora lini growing on Linum catharticum (Fairy Flax).

Melampsora lini on Linum catharticum

There was also Nicrophorus vespilloides, the Sexton Beetle with black clubs on its antennae.

Nicrophorus vespilloides – with added mites

On Friday morning Joanna and Julian joined me for a quick look at the tiny bit of land on Harlosh Point in NG24Q. We found 48 taxa in this tiny coastal strip including Carex distans (Distant Sedge), Cerastium diffusum (Sea Mouse-ear) and Galium verum (Lady’s Bedstraw).

Miscellany

Near East Suisnish on Raasay there is a little bit of land in NG5533. I chose not to record this separately for The Flora of Raasay. However, there is a slightly bigger area on the Moll peninsula of Skye that falls in the same tetrad and that is a different habitat, making a visit to the Raasay bit worthwhile in order to achieve a more complete picture of the tetrad. On Sunday I went to NG5535 and added 21 taxa to the tetrad. I also had a look in early April when I added five.

New things this time included Acaena inermis (Spineless Acaena), well-known nearby, and the always-nice-to-see Pinguicula lusitanica (Pale Butterwort).

I have found a lot of different rusts and leaf-mines recently but they do not generally make for interesting images.  However, the moth trap yielded 15 moths of 12 species the other night.

Magpie Moth

True-lover’s Knot

Beautiful Golden Y

Grey Pug

Nearby this ichneumon was on the wall, perhaps attracted by the light.

The moth trap had also attracted large numbers of non-biting midges and yesterday the garden was full of insects including Red Admirals and this Yarrow Plume Moth:

Yarrow Plume

Curiously there are Flame Carpets everywhere at the moment but none ventured into the trap – or if they did, they got out again.

A Harvestman in the Garden

I think this is Leiobunum rotundum:

It was on the outside wall of our house today. it looks like this species if one compares it with the images here.

It could be good to have  comment from someone more knowledgable about these…..

There is a 1979 record from Portree on the NBN.

Other Botanists’ Efforts

I have been away all week for family reasons but the great work continues…..

Nick has visited tetrad NG36Q near his home where there were only 11 previous records, all from before 2000.  He recorded 140 taxa yesterday, so that is one tetrad I do not have to worry about. He found Carex caryophyllea (Spring-sedge) which has rather few records on Skye and may be something for which I have a bit of a blind spot.

Carex caryophyllea Image N Hodgetts

Spring-sedge Image N Hodgetts

He also found what I think is Puccinia moliniae on Prunella vulgaris (Selfheal):

Puccinia moliniae on Prunella vulgaris Photo: N Hodgetts

P. moliniae.… guess the other host….

Also, Karen has sent me some nice pictures of the Saxifraga cespitosa (Tufted Saxifrage) and Woodsia alpina (Alpine Woodsia) from the Trotternish Ridge earlier in the month.

Saxifraga cespitosa Photo: K Woolley

Woodsia alpina Photo: K Woolle

 

A Week on Muck

I have just spent a rather wet and windy week on Muck with the Inverness Botany Group. I decided to record on a monad (1 km square) basis as there are only 13 and none has 100% land. However, it spreads over four 10km squares, three of which have no other land in VC 104. We made over 1,800 records and as well as re-finding old records of many species, we added Carex extensa (Long-bracted Sedge), Carex limosa (Bog-sedge), Carlina vulgaris (Carline Thistle) and Valeriana officinalis (Common Valerian) to the Muck list.

Daucus carota

Sagina maritima

Ajuga pyramidalis

Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea

Carex paniculata

Sedum acre on a shell beach

Fumaria bastardii (Tall Ramping-fumitory), distinguished by its large flowers but small stipules, was a good find with only two previous sites (on Muck and Eigg) in VC104 and no record since 1999.

Fumaria bastardii (Tall Ramping-fumitory)

Some Myriophyllum in  brackish pools led me to hope for M. spicatum for which there are no accepted records for VC 104, as this is the habitat in which it is found on Coll and Tiree and the Outer Isles.

However, the inflorescence being <3cm and the tip drooping in bud plus the basal whorl of flowers being in leaf-like pinnatisect bracts then others in pectinate bracts, tells me that it is the locally frequent M. alterniflorum.

We also recorded a number of insects, mammals…..

Rhagium bifasciatum

Carabus granulatus

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Grey Seals

Shags

Belted Beauty Larva

The Belted Beauty has yet to be recorded on Skye.

Also fungi, some of which are awaiting identification….

On Rosa caesia subsp. vosagiaca

On Silene flos-cuculi

Later: Bruce tells me the fungus on Silene flos-cuculi is Septoria lychnidis, or as NBN has it Caryophylloseptoria lychnidis, and that it is found on other members of the genus too.

Back Home

Bruce has identified this fungus on our Bay (Laurus nobilis) as Phomopsis lauri, which he says is surprisingly rare.

Phomopsis lauri on Bay

I found this hoverfly in the conservatory which, subject to final inspection, Murdo says is Scaeva selenitica, and “I have found that only four times before, and not since 2012”.

Scaeva selenitica

Scaeva selenitica

The NBN distribution map looks like this:

What one can find without leaving house and garden…..

More from Skye’s East Coast

The day before last Saturday’s Skye Botany Group outing, Ro went up Ben Tianavaig and added 45 taxa to the tetrad. I had been there at the beginning of April 2013 – see here and here hoping to re-find Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple Saxifrage) and Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens). I succeeded in the first but failed in the second. Ro also failed to find Dryas – maybe it has been lost in a rockfall. However, she did find a single plant of Arabidopsis petraea (Northern Rock-cress), previously recorded from this tetrad in 1967 by John & Hilary Birks.

Arabidopsis petraea Photo: R Scott

Yesterday, I visited the bits I failed to get to last week, NG54J and NG55F. They now have 105 and 135 taxa recorded respectively, and I added a few to NG55A and B while passing through. There was lots of Equisetum telmateia (Great Horsetail), Eupatorium cannabinum (Hemp-agrimony) and Hypericum tetrapterum (Square-stalked St John’s-wort) all of which have limited and essentially coastal distributions on Skye.

Some of the trees were covered in lichens and bryophytes. like this Goat Willow:

Salix caprea – epiphytic flora

Not that I am getting seriously into micromoths but I managed two yesterday that have been confirmed by Keith and Nigel:

Anthophila fabriciana larva on Urtica dioica

Micropterix calthella on Ranunculus repens

The given vernacular names are Nettle Tap and Plain Gold.

This rust on Hypochaeris radicata (Cat’s-ear) is Puccinia hieracii var. hypochaeridis:

Coincidentally Steve sent me this image from Suisnish which is of a similar thing on Pilosella officinarum (Mouse-ear-hawkweed), Puccinia hieracii var. piloselloidarum:

He also sent me a picture of Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort) that appears to have a fungus on it but that has yet to be identified:

Alder on Raasay

My contribution to the June edition of Am Bratach, the Raasay Community Newsletter, is available through a link on the Recording & Resources page of my website and concerns Alder.

Two Changes of Heart

Firstly, the lime trees with hairs on the underside of the leaf veins. I went back to a 1992 paper by Donald Pigott concerning the hybrid lime trees planted in Britain in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.  He identifies two distinct clones one of which has lower leaves with “a few paired longer hairs lying along the sides of the main vein” and the other “scattered longer simple or paired hairs along much of the length of the main veins. In some trees there are also flat stellate hairs sparsely distributed on the underside of the lamina, and not associated with the main veins”. They are both fertile and Professor Pigott tells me “they produce individuals that vary from similarity to the parent, all stages of intermediacy to T. platyphyllos and genetic dwarfs but rarely, if ever, trees you would confuse with T. cordata .”

So Tilia x europaea coming under “Leaves hairless both sides (except for tufts in vein axils below)” in keys is simply wrong. I am reverting to Tilia x europaea for the local planted trees.

Secondly, many years ago I was persuaded that a particular type of Mimulus hybrid found here (and elsewhere) is Mimulus guttatus × nummularius × variegatus (M. x caledonicus ined.) and that is how I have been recording it.

Last year Mick Crawley said “My view is that both M. variegatus and M. nummularius should be sunk within M. luteus var. rivularis and therefore that your plant is no different from M. x robertsii.”

I have now been in touch with Mario Vallejo-Marin at the University of Stirling who published details of the neo-native Mimulus peregrinus in 2012. He says, “I agree that the plant you described looks like what I call Mimulus x robertsii. Identifying the exact parentage of M. x robertsii is not a straightforward task, in part because the South American parent (the M. luteus clade with all its taxa) is a complex of interfertile species. From my observations in the UK, I gather that most of the (rare) M. luteus sensu lato that occurs in the UK is of hybrid origin. I have on my list of projects to do a detailed characterisation of M. luteus in the British isles, and perhaps then I will be more adventurous in trying to recognise different strains of M. x robertsii.”

And also: “Please keep me posted of your observations on Mimulus in Skye. I would love to hear if you find any seed-producing M. x robertsii. It could be a new sighting of M. peregrinus!  Local Mimulus spotters, please note.

I am changing all VC104 records of “Mimulus guttatus × nummularius × variegatus (M. x caledonicus ined.” to M. x robertsii. They are all either recorded or determined by me so I am feeling within my rights!