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:

Skye Botany Group at Staffin

Yesterday we went to a coastal area near Staffin and recorded 191 taxa in a previously under-recorded tetrad, NG56D.

The following were new to the 10km square NG56:

Blysmus rufus (Saltmarsh Flat-sedge)
Carex hostiana x lepidocarpa
Eleocharis multicaulis (Many-stalked Spike-rush)
Fraxinus excelsior (Ash) (Planted)
Gymnadenia borealis (Heath Fragrant-orchid) (But only because older records had not been assigned to what was then a subspecies Gymnadenia conopsea subsp. borealis)
Lemna minor (Common Duckweed)
Luzula multiflora subsp. congesta (Heath Wood-rush)
Saxifraga x urbium (Londonpride) (Roadside, garden throw-out)
Triglochin maritima (Sea Arrowgrass)

and Ribes nigrum (Black Currant) about 2 metres outside the tetrad in NG56C.
We also spotted a number of insects, leaf-mines, leaf-spots and rusts, some of which are still to be determined.

Shell-rock

Peloric Geum rivale

Four-spotted Chaser

Moth larva ….

Leaf mines on Ficaria verna subsp. fertilis

Small Things

This micro-moth was in the garden yesterday. Nigel tells me it is Syndemis musculana sometimes known as Dark-barred Twist, though verncular names do not seem to be much used in the micromothing world.

and today this looper caterpillar which Nigel tells me is the Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) fell onto the lawnmower.

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This fly, Murdo tells me is a Phaonia, a very large genus of the family Muscidae, but since I have had seven different species over the past five years it will need to go for proper determination:

Meanwhile, the fungus on Dryas octopetala from Wednesday is looking very likely to be Isothea rhytismoides. The NBN Atlas has 22 records for the British Isles, all in Scotland or Ireland, but none since 1993, and none in Scotland since 1990. (Also none anywhere near Skye.) Here is a better image:

and a link to things found on Dryas. (The English starts below the Dutch.)

Berraraig Bay and Beyond

Back in the last century Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens) (1976) and Epipactis atrorubens (Dark-red Helleborine) (1996) were discovered on the cliffs of Berraraig Bay. Then in 2006 I added a third Nationally Scare species to the same habitat, Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine).

For several years I have been meaning to get there in May when the Cephalanthera is in flower and on Thursday I achieved it. I counted over 40 plants, over a 700m stretch. I will certainly have missed some non-flowering specimens as quite a few plants are a little way up a near-vertical cliff.

This was an exceptional day for me in that I added the three Nationally Scarce species above to tetrad NG55C (as well as other nice things like Neottia ovata (Common Twayblade), and two to NG55H, Dryas and Equisetum x font-queri (Font-Quer’s Horsetail) as well as Neottia ovata again, and Vicia sylvatica (Wood Vetch).

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Now I know Equisetum x font-queri, unlike Equisetum telmateia (Great Horsetail), is supposed to bear a cone at the top of fertile stems but this is ridiculous:

There were rusts and similar I haven’t found before:

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and all sorts of other things – generally a great day.

Sawfly of the Tenthredo arcuata group

Seal

Ammonites

Geary – Updated

In the past I have driven to the end of the road at Geary in order to hasten to the botanically rich Geary Ravine SSSI. Today I stopped a little sooner and had a go at tetrad NG25Q, in particular the coastal woodland.

This tetrad is unusual in VC104 in that there were lots of records (155) from before the year 2000 but none since. There is one other in a similar category with 96 earlier records but none recent, but that is more difficult to reach.

The reason for all these earlier records at Geary is a 1996 visit by Jackie Muscott and the Edinburgh Natural History Society. Despite the earliness of the season, I was able to re-find the majority of the previous records – and add some more.

The woodland ground flora was at its best, flowering before being shaded by tree leaves. Along the road there were some interesting escapes like Myrrhis odorata (Sweet Cicely), Tolmiea menziesii (Pick-a-back-plant), Rubus spectabilis (Salmonberry) and Symphytum x uplandicum (Russian Comfrey).

Some plants in flower, or nearly so:

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This little fellow dropped onto my recording card but I didn’t have the heart to take him home and try to determine exactly which land snail he is as he was unlikely to survive the experience:

Clearly a Balea, just need to check the species….. see comments below.

There were interesting fungi on plants too, some awaiting determination; the one on  Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime) may be unusual:

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Later: Bruce has confirmed my tentative identifications of

Uromyces muscari on Bluebell
Ramularia calthae on Marsh-marigold
Puccinia obscura on Great Wood-rush

and says that the rust on Brooklime is probably Puccinia veronicae on a previously unknown host, but wants the specimen I took.

Rusts

Seth showed me Bluebell Rust (Uromyces muscari) at Uig and also mentioned one found on Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum). Once home, the first Tutsan plant I looked at, about two metres from my front door, had it:

Melampsora hypericorum

There are no Skye or Raasay records on the NBN Atlas, but I expect this is another very common thing that is seriously under-recorded.

Aketil Burn

Back in June 2011 I walked along the Caroy River but did not divert along the Aketil Burn. This was a shame as back in 1973 John Birks had found some nice things there. Today I went to try to find them – and succeeded for ten of the twelve taxa he found that were still missing from the tetrad. I failed on Gymnocarpium dryopteris (Oak Fern) and, curiously even at this time of year, Populus tremula (Aspen).

Most pleasing was re-finding Hymenophyllum wilsonii (Wilson’s Filmy-fern) as there are only two known sites in NG33, this one and Glen Vic Askill (1988).

There was Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime) though not yet flowering and in the tetrad to the south the alien Rubus spectabilis (Salmonberry) which was being enjoyed by bumble bees.

Rubus spectabilis

Veronica beccabunga

There was Celandine Clustercup Rust on Ficaria verna subsp. fertilis (Lesser Celandine) and Ramularia on Rumex acetosa and R. obtusifolius – probably Ramularia pratensis on the former and Ramularia rubella on the latter – see comments.

Ramularia rubella on Rumex acetosa

Uromyces dactylidis