Down the Elgol Road

It appears that I'm still just a little behind with the ol' blogging. I reckon I can bring it all up to date in the space of just a few more posts, it's not as though I've been out very much since settling back into work after my jaunt down south. But first of all, let's finish February.

On 28th February I headed down the beautifully scenic Elgol Road, as perfectly captured in this video. Luckily for me, I made it there and back without requiring "four spare wheels, a spare exhaust and lots of f*cking patience". However, the knocking coming from my front suspension reminded me that I really ought to book the car in to get it fixed sometime soon.

I dropped in to Cill Chriosd, which has a shallow loch situated on the limestone. You know you're on limestone up here because all of a sudden deciduous trees are everywhere, it's pretty much that simple. The loch, being calcareous, is home to some decent aquatics including Fen Pondweed Potamogeton coloratus which occurs here at what is almost its northernmost global outpost. But the water was just too high for my wellies and I soon waded back to the shoreline. I shall return in the summer once the water level has dropped sufficiently.

The nearby woodland has several lively burns cascading through the rocks and one of these has a decent patch of Mountain Avens Dryas octopetala growing on ledges. A nailed on yeartick, you say? I'll have a bit of that, thankyou. Well I thought I knew where I was heading, but I somehow ended up on a different burn than expected and came face to face with a plant I've been hoping to encounter for a number of years now.

Green Spleenwort Asplenium viride - I found four clumps growing in close proximity to this burn

Note the elevation!

I was clambering up the burn, hopping from rock to rock, ever thankful for the grippiness of the limestone. As soon as I clapped eyes on the plant in the top image I thought, 'hmmm, why does that Maidenhair Spleenwort look all frazzled and weird (clambered closer) ...er... (clambered even closer) ...holy shit! Green Spleenwort!' (cue frantic scrabbling for the camera - y'know, just in case it 'escapes' or something).

I'd already started to make rough plans for seeing Green Spleenwort this later year. Initial thoughts included either somewhere bleak along the Trotternish Ridge or up a mountain in Perthshire. To randomly stumble across it at low elevation here on Skye was an unexpected stroke of good luck. And it's just so much more satisfying to self-find something rather than twitch it. Eventually I peeled myself away from that particular section of burn, found Mountain Avens at the usual spot and headed further towards Elgol with a second species of pondweed in mind.

Water Horsetail Equisetum fluviatile deposited along the bank

This small lochan is a known site for Red Pondweed Potamogeton alpinus. In fact, I think this may be where I first encountered the species. Anyway, it was still exactly where I'd left it the last time I was here, which would have been the day I showed it to Ali and Pete after our adventure in Spar Cave last year. Can't say it was looking at its finest, but it will improve as the season progresses

Quality pic of Red Pondweed Potamogeton alpinus...

Flushed with success (or maybe embarrassment), I quit the lochan with Red Pondweed safely under the belt, so to speak. Another couple of miles south and I arrived at Kilmarie, a definite favourite site of mine with a chunk of really nice woodland, lots of plant diversity and a good few habitats squeezed into a couple of square miles. It's great for entomology, though that was not on my mind on this occasion, and it's also where I found a singing Common Rosefinch last year. But I was here for plants, so headed into the small cemetery as an obvious starting point. 

You'll probably have noticed me banging on about polypodies a few times lately. The Skye Botany Group, of which I am part, are currently undertaking a survey of Polypody Polypodium vulgare and Intermediate Polypody Polypodium interjectum with an aim of establishing a better idea of their distributions and abundances, along with the hope of finding their hybrid Polypodium x mantoniae. No conclusive sign of the hybrid so far, but the more you look... I soon noticed an awful lot of polypodies in the cemetery, some on the boundary wall, some on the trees. I saw what appeared to be a very clear interjectum and took a sample for the project.

Polypodium interjectum - they really don't come much better than that!

I then spied a clump with pretty manky-looking fronds and reduced sori. Plus one absolutely enormous frond poking out between them. I looked closer, wondering if I'd finally found the hybrid P. x mantoniae

Possible Hybrid Polypody. Note the huge frond on the right of the clump

Suspiciously reduced sori size and quantity

Blurry pic of the enormous frond which resembles Polypodium vulgare in general shape

I collected two samples from this patch, one of which was the outsized frond, and finished my skirmish around the cemetery, noting twenty or so Spurge-laurel plants coming up where they and a huge Rhododendron thicket had been recently cleared. No sign of Rhododendron regrowth, which is a good thing, but I was glad to see the Spurge-laurel hanging on at its only known Skye locality.  

Back at the car I took a moment to look at the polypody fronds I had collected

Polypodium interjectum on the left, putative hybrids centre and to the right

You'll have to just pretend not to see the crumbs all over the passenger seat. I tend to use it as a surface on which to lay my sandwiches/pasties/crisps whenever I'm eating whilst driving. Sorry 'bout that. 

The nearby river has stepping stones to the far bank, though a couple were submerged due to the high water level. Soddit, what's the worst that could happen I asked myself as I neared the first submerged stone. Sadly for you lot, the worst didn't happen and I made it to the far side without falling in. Of course, I still had to make it back again afterwards. 

My target here was Prickly Heath Gaultheria mucronata. It does all too well for itself in the poor soil at the top of the beach, a guaranteed addition to the yearlist. I guess it was introduced as a garden plant, or maybe as cover for gamebirds, but once it gets a hold it's a highly invasive menace. If I see a seedling, I tend to uproot it. 

Prickly Heath Gaultheria mucronata. You can see it in the background too, bloody stuff

If you look really closely, you may be able to see a few pale streaks of hail in the image above. Those pale streaks turned into a shockingly heavy downpour which was actually quite sore and stinging as it lashed my bare head. Damnit, I didnt have a hood or hat - ouch! Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes, I felt mildly flailed. 

I contemplated the stepping stones once more and, figuring I'd be pushing my luck to try it twice, chickened out and headed a few hundred metres upstream to a nice, safe bridge. Back indoors that evening I checked my three polypody samples. The obvious interjectum candidate was indeed Polypodium interjectum, and a lovely specimen too. That went straight into the press (actually an A4 pad with several heavy books piled on top of it). Rather disappointingly, both of the potential hybrid fronds were also Polypodium interjectum. It really is a very variable beast, I'd been hopeful that I'd found the hybrid at last. 

Music time again. There's no reason for tonight's offering, other than it's late and I can't be doing with trying to find something more relevant. All the same, hope you enjoy!