I'm officially on holiday! I left Skye this morning and headed eastwards until I hit Loch Ness. Then I turned northwards, drove a wiggly line up to Inverness before heading southwards into Speyside, botanising the whole way. Tonight's blog is brought to you from the comfort of a hotel in Grantown-on-Spey, my first 'away night' since last October. The room set me back a whacking £32, I may stay here again tomorrow or I may base myself a bit nearer Cairngorm, unless of course I opt to kip in the car (my tent, which I haven't used since walking JOGLE, is currently enjoying a much-needed airing back indoors). On the third day I head back to Skye. So ok, it's a mini-break rather than a holiday, but I'll take it.
March is the month when I traditionally head into Inverness and target a bucketload of Scilla species. These are the various squills and glory-of-the-snows which have become naturalised in urban areas, mostly due to garden waste being dumped in various hedgerows and beneath trees. Out of sight, out of mind and all that... To quote the bumf online Dumping garden waste in roadside verges, hedgerows or any other public land is classified as fly-tipping, which is a criminal offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Offenders can be issued fixed penalty notices (fines) of up to £1000, or in serious cases, prosecuted with unlimited fines and up to 5 years in prison. I wonder who enforces this (well, clearly no-one!) and I wonder what the pay is like. Hmmm.
Anyhoo
Before all the Scilla shenanigans began, my first port of call was Urquhart Bay Woods in search of three target plants. Yesterday I discovered that Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem grows here, a plant I've only ever seen a handful of times before and never in Scotland. That was my top target, very closely followed by Moschatel which I've only ever previously seen at Waylands Wood in Norfolk. I'm not sure when I last visited Waylands Wood, but it must be pushing 20 years. So yeah, it's been a bit of a while since I've seen the plant! The final target was Alternate-reality Golden-saxifrage (as Mark Telfer so eloquently dubbed it a few years back). The big question being, would I grip or dip? Well....
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| Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem! |
After quite a bit of searching, I suddenly realised there was a clump of Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem growing right next to the path itself. It was a little tricky trying to accurately count the number of plants present, despite the patch only covering an area roughly four by four feet square. There were six plants in bud, but quite where one plant ended and another began was difficult to say. Ideally I'll return at the end of the month when they'll all be in flower. No sign of the associated rust or smut fungi, perhaps these are more likely to occur on older tissue rather than on freshly emerged shoots. This is my first encounter with Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem in Scotland, as can also be said for the next plant
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| Moschatel! Get in, Gibster! |
I first saw Moschatel way back during March 2002, at Waylands Wood as mentioned. Back in those days, Waylands Wood was a very reliable site for Golden Pheasant and it was whilst searching for these that I stumbled across flowering Moschatel plants. The pheasants duly died out, hence I never returned and I never noticed Moschatel ever again. Until today when I found myself staring rather intently at some small leaves on the woodland floor, a bit like very young Creeping Buttercup, but then again a bit different too. And a funny kind of grey-toned green. I took a couple of pics for reference. Then I became somewhat distracted by the Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem patch. After the excitement faded, I continued scanning around for more of the plant I'd seen and pretty soon I found a great big patch of the stuff complete with unopened flowerheads! Happy days, I'm really not sure how I've repeatedly managed to 'not see' Moschatel for the last twenty odd years, but I've certainly got my eye in now and I went on to find shedloads of the stuff lining the pathways through Urquhart Bay Woods. I've walked past this every single time I've been here. Moschatel isn't known from Skye, in fact it's entirely absent from all of the Hebridean Islands as well as much of the adjacent mainland. But if it is on Skye, I'm keen to find it! Again, if I come back at the end of the month these should be in full flower.
My final hoped-for target here was Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage. I've seen this plant here once before, but it's another one that I'm not particularly familiar with (I've seen it twice). It took a lot of effort to find last time, but I recall thinking it was pretty obviously different from the ubiquitous Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage that I see so often here on Skye. Of course, two years later and I've forgotten the exact reasoning behind my recollections. Suddenly, a little way off the path, there it was. And yeah, it really does look different!
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| Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage |
All targets safely secured, I headed off to the first Scilla site at nearby Balmacaan Woods at Lewiston.
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| Scilla luciliae in full...erm, bud! |
Damnit, by the looks of things I'm about a day early. Maybe two days. But, as previously mentioned, if I come back at the end of the month....
At Drumnadrochit (forever in my head now as Drum in a Bucket, cheers Kenzie!) I took the back road to Beauly via the hamlet of Gartally where BSBI Recorder Andy Amphlett had found Muscari latifolium new to VC in April of last year. In keeping with a recent trend, this is a plant that I have never seen in Scotland before and so I was keen to connect. And in keeping with another recent trend, it appeared that I was a tad too early to see it at its absolute finest. Behold!
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| Muscari latifolium. There were two of them, if that helps. |
Continuing onwards I entered the town of Beauly where a wander along the riverbank beneath Alder carr failed to reveal the promised Summer Snowflake clumps. Presumably I was too early... However, I was ridiculously pleased to find a flock of around ten Yellowhammers closely followed by a similar number of Reed Buntings, the latter being scarce on Skye and the former a gross rarity/mythical. Summer Snowflake is a very rare plant in this part of the world, unknown from Skye obviously, and I may have missed it for the year, but hopefully I will have a second chance sometime later this spring. A couple of clumps of Stinking Iris were unexpected bonuses. I gleefully picked the end few inches of a leaf and crushed it in my hand before breathing in deeply. For this veggie person, the delightful beef gravy smell was worth every moment! It is, of course, entirely absent from Skye. I checked closely but failed to find any sign of the associated Iris Brand fungus.
I then finally made my way into Inverness and its piles of dumped garden refuse. Yes, I absolutely hate the fact that some folk are so arrogant and ignorant that they find it perfectly acceptable to dump green waste into the nearest patch of shrubbery or woodland and will argue back that it's only grass or clippings or whatever. Fuckwits. But yes, I am two-faced and will gladly tick whatever naturalises from aforementioned dumped material. I mean a tick's a tick, right? There's one particular strip of trees that is used by 'houses with large gardens' as a dumping ground. These people are not lacking a few pennies. That's what really grates with me. Build a fucking compost heap in one of your lesser-used acres ffs, or pay your gardeners a bit extra to properly dispose of the clippings, just be a decent human being. Grrrrr... But yeah, if urban botany/grotany is your thing, this habitat can be a rich hunting ground. I stepped out of the car and found myself face to face with clumps of these
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| Lesser Glory-of-the-snow Scilla sardensis |
This is Scilla sardensis, a variable plant regards the colour of the tepals and the amount of white that bleeds onto them at the base. It is by far and away the most common Scilla at this site with many hundreds of plants in flower and many more yet to come into flower.
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| Glory-of-the-snow Scilla forbesii |
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| Scilla sardensis (left) with Scilla forbesii (right) |
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| Alpine Squill Scilla bifolia |
I found just two patches of Scilla bifolia and just one of Scilla forbesii, but (dare I say it) I may have been a little early for these. I have previously seen Kerria japonica here, but today I failed to find it. Possibly it has been cut down (doubtful) or, more likely, I just can't see it without its yellow pompom flowers. I'm starting to think I really do need to come back at the end of the month. Tuberous Comfrey is sprouting all over the place at the moment, the leaves are still quite small but by the time the Scilla have died down it will be a dominant part of the ground flora here.
I had a nearby site to visit in my quest to clear up on the available Scilla. It's a patch of woodland near to a derelict hospital at Culloden and it turned up a surprise for me today. First though, the Scilla
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| Siberian Squill Scilla siberica |
This patch of Siberian Squill is growing in a woodland well away from any gardens, I'm not really at all sure how it got here. But it did, and it's doing very well for itself too. Note how the flowerheads all droop downwards. Amongst the squills/glory-of-the-snows, I think this habit is unique to this one species. They remind me of shower heads and in my mind will always be Siberian Shower Squills.
A short distance away were a few dozen dark green clumps of an unknown plant, more or less dominating a clearing beneath trees. I wondered if they could be Lily-of-the-Valley, but I was wrong. I took some pics, took some rough measurements and decided I'd figure it out afterwards. And I think I have!
These are Meadow Saffron Colchicum autumnale, also known as Autumn Crocus. These huge clumps wither away long before the flowers emerge. Having previously seen the flowers, I would not necessarily have connected the foliage and the flowers as belonging to the same species! But that's what these are, my first Meadow Saffron leaves, it kind of feels like a valid lifer in itself.
The Scilla were now done and dusted, a successful clean sweep of all available species. I hit the A9, home of roadworks, and steered myself into Carrbridge where I had another hitlist of species to see. First up was Jacob's Ladder, duly spotted growing on the edge of some wasteland as it always has been ever since I found it. I have to admit that it gave me little joy to tick it off for the year. I knew it would be there, it's like a dead cert twitch - not very satisfying. But I suppose I 'needed' to see it as it's another one crossed off the list on my way to 2500 species for the year. Doubtless there will be more unsatisfying 'dead cert twitches' as the year progresses, but I guess if you're in a numbers game then you do kinda need the numbers! Thankfully I'm not just in it for the numbers, that would be simply unendurable.
With numbers in my mind (...) I headed next to a nearby site where I knew I could find Norwegian Spruce and the ant Formica exsecta. And sure enough I did. What I also found was a fallen Norwegian Spruce cone plastered in the fungus Pucciniastrum areolatum, a lifer for me!
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| It's the rounded bumps covering the exposed scale surfaces |
I'd never heard of Pucciniastrum areolatum until about two weeks ago when Neil (he of rockpooling fame) put a picture up on Facebook. He showed me the cone in question when we last met, I somehow remembered to check cones next time I found Norwegian Spruce and unbelievably it was all over the very first cone I checked!
For now, I have a couple of pots with things in to look at more closely once I'm back at my microscope on Skye. My yearlist so far is now over 800 species. With warmer weather on the way I'm hopeful of a bit of invert activity. Tomorrow I will head down towards Aviemore and Cairngorm, weather depending. I have a few more target plants to try for before I head back westwards once more.
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