Botanising in Scotland. July 2017 Part 1: Ben Lawers and Ben Vrackie

 Ben Lawers

After climbing Ben Lawers and seeing some fantastic plants in 2016 it was great to be back. On our last visit we had failed to find several species, in particular Rock Speedwell and Boreal Fleabane, but also a few others. This time the climb wasn't as bad because we took the 'easier' shepherd's path to the crags below the summit. We spent a bit more time looking at the crags than we did last year as the climb up had been much quicker, and it paid off nicely when we found our two target plants and many more. Here's some photos of all our new plants and also a few we'd seen before but I had the urge to photograph again.

Alpine Mouse-ear - Cerastium alpinum

Alpine Willowherb - Epilobium anagallidifolium

Mountain Speedwell - Verronica serpyllifolia ssp. humifusa

Mountain Sandwort with one flower (minus three of its petals) actually open!! 

 

Mountain Sandwort - Minuartia rubella

Mountain Sandwort and Alpine Saxifrage growing side by side on a ledge.

Alpine Saxifrage - Saxifraga nivalis

Alpine Cinqufoil - Potentilla crantzii

We eventually spotted a few plants of Boreal Fleabane. They are surprisingly difficult to see, but it didn't help that we'd been looking in the wrong place last year. They were all on very steep area and getting photos was difficult. A lot of reaching was involved. Worth it though. What a little beauty!

The whole plant is incredibly hairy.

Boreal Fleabane - Erigeron borealis

I was really excited to see this flower after being disappointed when we failed to find any last year. I love Speedwells and this is one heck of a Speedwell!

Another one of those flowers that I desperately wanted to see the moment I first saw a picture of it in a book.

A bit of a dream come true!

Rock Speedwell -Veronica fruticans 

 Holly Fern - Polystichum lonchitis

In this photo there are two plants that we'd never seen before, one is Scottish Pearlwort (a hybrid of Procumbent Pearlwort and Alpine Pearlwort) and the other is Sibbaldia. Believe it or not, I was taking the photo of Scottish Pearlwort and didn't notice the Sibbaldia ( it blends in with the Alpine Lady's Mantle so well). I only noticed later, when I looked at the photo after we'd left Ben Lawers!  To make matters worse we'd been looking for it at various locations without any luck. So I've seen it but haven't seen it. Most annoying! At least the flowers had gone over. 

Scottish Pearlwort - Sagina x normaniana 

On the summit we looked for but failed to find Snow Pearlwort, so a good excuse to go back yet again some day. We did see a lovely big clump of Rock Whitlowgrass nestled in a rock crevice which was in flower after having only found some in fruit the previous year.

Rock Whitlowgrass - Draba norvegica 

A couple of shots of the incredible views from the summit.

Ben Vrackie

The following day with the weather still set fair we climbed a second mountain. Ben Vrackie on the edge of Pitlochry is a relatively easy climb with a long gradual ascent until one steeper section as you approach the summit. After my exertions the previous day I found it extremely hard going. I'm definitely not a two mountains in two days kinda gal! I was constantly being passed by people most of whom could see how I was struggling and offered words of encouragement. This encouragement was usually that the view from the top was worth it. I wasn't interested in that though, I was here for the Alpine Milk-vetch. Fortunately the place where it grows isn't right at the summit, but after having seen it and had a bit of a rest we continued on to the summit anyway in a vain attempt to actually knowingly see Sibbaldia.

Brown Bog Rush - Schoenus ferrugineus with a lovely carpet of Yellow Mountain Saxifrage - Saxifraga aizoides in the background.

Brown Bog Rush isn't much to look at (unless you like that sort of thing) but is extremely rare. These plants were transplanted here when the water-levels were raised at its only known site, Loch Tummel, in the 1950s to save it from extinction. It has since been found at a few more locations.

Stag's-horn Clubmoss - Lycopodium clavatum

The start of the steeper climb below the summit of Ben Vrackie, with the site of the Alpine Milk-vetch within sight. I was really hoping it was in flower!

It was!

A rare and beautiful flower in a stunning setting.

 Seeing sights like this make the hard work worth very step!

Alpine Milk-vetch - Astragalus alpinus 

I made it ... just!

Cedar Cups in Sidmouth

Earlier on in the winter I spotted a nice Cedar tree in a park in Sidmouth Town centre. I thought it looked an ideal place to find Cedar Cup come the spring. There was a slight problem though, Cedar Cup is a rare fungus in the southwest with very few records. I thought it would be worth checking though and so last Sunday that's what I did. I could hardly believe my eyes when I found some almost immediately! Ten fruiting bodies in total but unfortunately not in the best condition as there is a plague of Squirrels in the park and they had been tucking into them. All the pointed rays around the rims had been nibbled off. Hopefully when the weather warms up a bit they might fruit a bit more and I'll catch them before the squirrels do!

I couldn't see that there were any records for this species in Devon and so contacted the county recorder with my find. He had seen them once in Devon at Exeter University and so mine was only the second record for them in Devon. It could be one of those species which isn't actually that rare, just under recorded. How many people go out looking under all the Cedar trees they can at this time of year? Well there's me, so that's one...

A Blue Atlas Cedar with plenty of bare earth beneath looked the ideal candidate for Cedar Cups.

 

This one is just beginning to open up. They start off as underground spheres and push up to the surface and open up into several irregular rays. The inner surface which is the spore bearing surface is grey or milky white.The outer surface seen here is brown and fibrous.

Opening up

Fully open but with only one ray remaining.

There are teeth marks visible on this one!

The county recorder suggested I take a look at the spores because they are quite distinctive being very large. So I dusted off the old microscope and did just that. Here they are. I can't verify the size as I don't have a calibrated measure on my microscope but they were easily visible at just 40x magnification which does indeed make them large for fungal spores. For the record they are 330 - 370µm x 16 - 22µm

40x

The spores are within the asci which are long and cylindrical. There are 8 pores in each ascus and you can just make them out at this magnification . The obvious circles are oil droplets within the spore. The spores are ellipsoidal fusiform (eye-shaped)

  All more clearly seen here at 100x

400x 

1000x 

Botanising in Scotland, June 2017 Part 2: North East Highlands and Cairngorms

The rest of our week in Scotland in Early June was spent looking at plants which thankfully weren't up mountains, some were on Cairngorm, but not a long way from the car park. The rest in the Abernethy Forest & Rothiemurchus areas, and a few sites along the north east coast.

Whitewell on the Rothiemurchus Estate is a great spot for wild flowers with a great view towards the Cairngorm Mountains.

There was plenty of the lovely Mountain Everlasting or Cat's-foot.

These are the female flowers which also occur in pink.

 Mountain Everlasting - Antennaria dioica

The plant I was hoping to see here though was Small White Orchid, which last year I'd only seen in seed. There were quite a few spikes scattered about in the area but not many of them were out yet. It only takes one though, and in fact I was lucky as two were very nicely in flower not fully out yet but enough. I've longed to see this orchid ever since I first saw it in Harrop's Orchids of Great Britain and Ireland. I don't know why but it was the one I most wanted to see. Needless to say I was very happy!

Small White Orchid - Psuedorchis albida 

Also in the Abernethy area were more lovely orchids like...

Northern Marsh Orchid -  Dactylorhiza purpurella

 Very popular with the Hoverflies!

And Lesser Butterfly Orchid which was another first for me.

Rather surprisingly really considering it has quite a few sites in Devon. I just haven't been to any of them at the right time of year I guess. 

 

 Lesser Butterfly Orchid - Platanthera bifolia

Other highlights were two flowers which I'd seen for the first time last year and  I was only too happy to see again.

Chickweed Wintergreen - Trientalis europaea

Twin Flower - Linnaea borealis

Cairngorm

A few mountain flowers not far from the Coire Cas car park at Cairngorm 

Bog Bilberry - Vaccinium uliginosum

Cloudberry - Rubus chamaemorus 

I'd only seen this in fruit before, which admittedly looks better than the flower.

A plant which definitely looks better in flower than fruit is...

Dwarf Cornel - Cornus suecica. 

Glen Clova

We made a quick visit to Glen Clova hoping to see Purple Coltsfoot at its only site in the UK. We did see the leaves but that's all. It wasn't faring very well having become almost completely crowded out by leggy heather. This had been cleared away when we visited (well, cut back). I only hope it has been done in time. It does make you wonder why it was left to get like this. Last year we asked about visiting the plant and the ranger said we couldn't go and see it because the habitat was too fragile! It seems like nobody had been checking on it at all! This is what can happen when conservation bodies are too protective of a rare plant's whereabouts. If nobody ever visits, problems may not be noticed in time. Hopefully it will recover, only time will tell. On the way up to look for it we found some nice examples of Interrupted Clubmoss.

Interrupted Clubmoss - Lycopodium annotinum

Purple Coltsfoot - Homogyne alpina

Leaves of and Common Butterwort -  Pinguicula vulgaris

Balblair Wood, Loch Fleet & Golspie

More of the exquisite Twinflower carpets parts of the floor of Balblair Wood. 

The flower we were here for though was the very strange looking One-flowered Wintergreen also known as St.Olaf's Candlestick. 

One-flowered Wintergreen - Moneses uniflora

  

On a very wet day we visited Princess Cairn near Golspie in the hope of finding Pyramidal Bugle. The less said about it the better I think... "If you can't say anything nice" springs to mind!
We had slightly better luck at a well known site for it nearby called The Mound.
We found the plant but it wasn't really looking very pyramidal. I think because it was growing amongst long grass and had become leggy. It had the correct long hairs on all stem sides and most of the bracts were longer than the flowers, the topmost ones more so (although some had been nibbled) and the pale blue flowers with white stripes. No stolons were visible. It wasn't a hybrid either as it had some fruits. I'd like to see a better one though.

Atypical Pyramidal Bugle - Ajuga pyramidalis

Adersier Common.

The plant I wanted to see here was Coralroot Orchid which can be found in good numbers. There were a couple of other notable plants as well. 

Common Wintergreen - Pyrola minor

Cuckoo Flower -  Cardamine pratensis

First time I've seen this double flowered form

(at least that's what I think it is)

Moonwort - Botrychium lunaria

I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw the Coralroot Orchids, they were much more colourful than I'd expected from photos I've seen of them and some of them a lot larger too. You have to get 'up close and personal' to really see them at their best.

There were some quite large groups.

The closer you get....

The better they look!

Coralroot Orchid - Corallorhiza trifida

That's all from our June trip but stay tuned as we went back for two weeks in July....