Second for Scotland

Yesterday I spent a good while on and around Dunnet Head at the very northernmost tip of mainland Britain. I saw some good stuff and had already worked out a couple of provisional working titles for this blogpost, something like "I've Dunnet" or maybe "That's Dunnet" or some such pun-tastic drivel. I headed back to Skye today and, whilst passing, called in at a couple of sites near Inverness, one of which is a certain alleyway that I've been known to frequent before (dodgy character that I am...) And good though Dunnet Head was, I've accidentally topped it by finding one particular plant. So I'll do the Dunnet blog another time, first up let me tell you all about today's alleyway shenanigans. 

A few years ago I found myself wandering down an overgrown alleyway that runs between a steep wooded embankment and the back of a long row of gardens. It's impossible to see into the gardens because of a tall stone wall that runs the entire length of the alleyway. The alleyway itself runs for maybe quarter of a mile and (thankfully) not many people use it. I'm comfy enough acting like a weirdo in an alleyway, squatting down to take pictures of the 'weeds' or maybe of the wall. But I'm also normal enough to realise that my presence could be somewhat disconcerting for young ladies, old women and gung-ho teenagers, any and all of whom would need to pass within a metre of me. Hence I'm thankful there is very little footfall after the first hundred metres or so (which is when most folk peel off into another alleyway that leads towards the shops). I tend to loiter several hundred metres away, which is where the all of interesting plants grow anyway.   

Anyhoo...

There used to be a clump of Rockery Saxifrage growing in the alleyway, I looked for it last year but couldn't find it. Today I thought I'd have a more thorough look (still couldn't find it, I suspect it's perished) and before long I spotted what looked a bit like a Fortune's Holly-fern bearing a cluster of purple-coloured vetch flowers; what in the heck was I seeing?! I took a closer look and was still flummoxed, the flowers were very definitely vetch-like, but the leaves were totally unlike those of any vetch I've ever seen. I tried to recall what Everlasting Pea leaves looked like, but I was pretty sure they had slimmer leaves and tendrils, which this plant lacked. I still had no idea what it was, other than something in the pea family. I took a few pics.

With Dandelion and Ivy-leaved Speedwell for scale

Detail of the flowers

The colours of the flowers blew me away. The blues and purples and lilacs were strongly reminiscent of the bizarre colours on the Sand Lucerne plants that I found in The Brecks last year. Sand Lucerne is of hybrid origin, which explains the crazy colours, so I wondered if this plant was of hybrid origin too (though Sweet Pea x Fortune's Holly Fern seemed more than a little unlikely). I went online for help.

This may seem a bit daft, seeing as I live in NW Scotland, but one of my favourite botanical websites is The Flora of East Anglia. It was my first port of call, as I stood next to my mystery plant hoping to avoid gaggles of schoolgirls or dog-walking grannies whilst I tried to determine the 'vetch thing' in front of me. This is the page that deals with the Everlasting Peas. It did not show my plant. I tried pink flowered peas but that was no use either, although it did make me think my plant was a Lathyrus, or something akin if not. As an aside, if you're at all interested in British plant identification, bookmark the Flora of East Anglia website, I guarantee it'll come in useful even if you live or botanise elsewhere. 

Stem is square in cross-section and largely glabrous and there are leafy stipules

I jammed into a gardening website dealing with various ornamental Lathyrus and pretty soon figured I had my plant. Lathyrus vernus aka the Spring Pea, which would make sense seeing as it was flowering in the middle of May. I checked a number of websites, all of which seemed to back up this provisional identification. What I didn't have with me was a copy of Stace, or anything else that would allow me to key the specimen through. Plus there was only one plant, I didn't want to pick a bit for later. I checked the BSBI Database to see how widespread Spring Pea is in the Inverness area....one Scottish record from near Edinburgh two years ago. Shit a brick!  

I decided to ask for help. First of all I uploaded the record onto the BSBI Recording App, stating the identity as Lathyrus vernus. Then I emailed Andy Amphlett, the BSBI Recorder for the vice county. I told him I'd uploaded the record but that the ID could well be wrong and it would need checking by a competent person. Happily Andy just so happened to be in Inverness at that very time and within a few hours he'd come back to me saying that he and Liz had seen the plant for themselves and that it was indeed Scotland's second record of Spring Pea, a new plant for all of us and the VC! 

Lathyrus vernus at its second Scottish location

I fully appreciate that many (of my 4 or 5) readers are not botanists, and that of those that are, many will be quietly tutting to themselves whilst reading this. "That Seth fella is getting all excited about garden escapes again. Plastic rubbish. Slum botany (grotany) at it's worst". Yeah yeah, I can hear ya! I guess I just don't make a very big deal of it when it comes to the finer distinctions of a plant being wild or a plant being marginally naturalised. After all, one plant does not a colony make! But it is naturalised, as an individual at least. I find this sort of botanising really exciting. Yesterday I found a Petunia growing outside a toilet block in Golspie (I botanise in all of the best places...) and that was hugely exciting too. 

Botanising just doesn't get any better than this! 

I feel as though I'm at the pinnacle of cutting edge botany. Petunias and rare garden escapees, I mean where on earth do I go from here?? (The garden centre, I hear you say - very bloody funny). Well the next blog will feature only native wild plants, including a couple of highly prized species. Something to look forward to. Possibly.

It's tenuous, I agree, but did somebody say peas? Here's to all those that diss slum botany, ha!