Have I found a Hawkweed New to Britain?

Well the answer to that appears to be...quite possibly so, yes! 

After several years worth of increasingly gung-ho square-bashing for the forthcoming BSBI Atlas 2020, local BSBI Recorder Stephen Bungard succeeded in surveying almost every square centimetre of Skye (including the surrounding islands, islets and any larger chunks of plant-supporting rock reachable by sea kayak) and has now decided to take a closer look at the somewhat bewildering array of Hieracium hawkweeds that occur here on Skye. 

Hieracium is an incredibly tricky genus of plants to get to grips with, scoring a decent 9 out of 10 for difficulty for most of we lesser mortals. However, given enough time in the field and with herbarium specimens, I'm positive that they are far more accessible than the books suggest. But who in their right mind would even want to grill hawkweed specimens? Happily, Stephen is no mere lesser mortal and has determined to 'sort out' some old records in an effort to figure out just what it is that we have here on Skye. He has, it has to be said, had a bit of help from BSBI Hieracium referee David McCosh. 

Last year I collected several specimens of the local hawkweeds that grow just down the road from me. Literally, just down the road. It was a bit late in the season and they were somewhat past their best, but I grabbed three or four anyway. David McCosh came back with mixed comments; they could be this, they could be that, he wasn't entirely sure what they were, could Stephen ask me to collect some more next year - but of better plants gathered somewhat earlier in the season. Cue this year when I did indeed grab a few specimens earlier in the season. These images are taken a tad before the flowers opened.

Images taken on 15th May 2020

I tried to take pics from several angles, hopefully highlighting various useful features in the process. Note these are just a handful of the images I took that day. A few weeks later the plants were in full flower, so I took yet more pics and this time I collected and pressed three specimens for forwarding on to the BSBI referee.

Images taken on 3rd June 2020

These are more habitat shots than of the plants themselves, after all I was including specimens for  close scrutiny. The footpath in the image above runs alongside the road through Uig. I really wasn't kidding when I said they grow just down the road from me - I walk past these twice daily, sometimes more!

I passed on my pressed examples of these plants to Stephen Bungard, who in turn posted them off to David McCosh. The roadside flowers all set seed, the leaves became generally worn and furled around the edges, and I thought no more of it. 

Fast forward to the middle of August and I suddenly noticed that a two of the hawkweeds were in full flower with healthy looking leaves, rather incongruously sat there amongst dozens of manky gone-over plants. How weird! I took a few more pics and grabbed one plant which I pressed and handed on to Stephen a week or so afterwards. 

Absolutely fresh as you like - these from 22nd August 2020

A couple of days back, David contacted Stephen regards the various batches of hawkweeds from across Skye that Stephen had forwarded to him.

Nothing of great interest, mostly triviale, anglicum, hebridense or shoolbredii. The less frequent were TB2 cyclicum from the site near Talisker Bay and  no.46 from Glamaig which is dasythrix. 

He then went on to mention my Uig plants

The plant from Uig does not fit any described species. With some hesitation I think it may belong to section Subalpina.

Stephen forwarded me this response along with the shortest email message I think I've ever received...

!

Over the course of the following day or two, David has come back with some further details regards the Uig plants.

The most obvious characteristic of the INDET was the stellate hairs all over the phyllaries especially on the margins. Apart from that, the phyllaries were blackish-green, subacute to obtuse, linear-lanceolate, 6-13 x 1.0-1.2 mm with numerous simple hairs and numerous very short or short black glandular hairs.  The peduncles had dense stellate hairs, numerous short glandular hairs and 0-occasional simple hairs.  Capitula 30-40 mm in diameter. Basal leaves many, mostly broadly elliptical and obtuse-mucronate at apex, often purplish beneath, the cauline 1-2, the lower sessile, acute and dentate lower down, the upper or only one bractlike. Inflorescence in the May collection paniculate-corymbose with a notably short acladium but the August and 2019 collection furcate-corymbose. H. petrocharis also has numerous stellate hairs, but its characters otherwise do not match.

I got most way through that before deciding that I really did need to go grab a botany book and double-check some of the terminology David was using (there's a damn good reason why I'm not a BSBI referee, ha!) From what I can make of it, David is still saying that the plants do not conform to any known British species and, potentially, there may be two non-conforming species involved. 

Let me just rephrase that. The plants growing abundantly on roadside rocks here in Uig may well be a hitherto undiscovered species of hawkweed. I may have discovered a new native plant!!! 

To be fair I've only been the boots on the ground, the clever work has been undertaken by others. As such, I've decided that should I have any say in matters (highly unlikely, I know but....) I'm going to suggest that the plants are named Hieracium bungardii. And if there are two new species, the latter can be Hieracium mccoshii. Never let it be said that I'm not a big-hearted chap, haha! 

I couldn't think of any Hawkweed tracks, so have this instead - Hawkwind's Quark Strangeness and Charm. I first heard this when I was seventeen, I think. I loved it then and I still do now. Never knew Marc Bolan had his own show though...