So I've just 'enjoyed' ten days of covid-related naffness, confined to barracks for the duration because I kept testing positive. The good news is that I'm now free to get out there and enjoy the unprecedented good weather that hit Skye pretty much the same time I hit my bed. I had two days of fever chills which were a bit rubbish, but other than that it wasn't honestly too bad. Something different every day, but the only lasting symptom is an ongoing lack of appetite. Maybe I'll finally start losing some gut, silver linings and all that.
Today was the first of my two days off work. I shot out of bed at the crack of 10:45am (you'd think I'd be sick of the sight of my bed...) and was on the road a short while later. Coz my new motto seems to be breakfast is for losers, right? Lunch too. Dinner is still a bit hit and miss...
I wasn't sure where to go first, but I ended up at Dunvegan. I had it in mind to check if the Coral Beach road was open yet, as it happens I didn't make it any further north than about 200 metres beyond Dunvegan Castle. Why? Well, because I spotted this lot at the side of the road, that's why!
Well they certainly stand out like a sore thumb!
I won't say that I sent The Gibstermobile into a barely-controlled sliding skid, but it's probably a good thing for me that the traffic police weren't anywhere to be seen. I carefully parked up (abandoned the car in a roadside ditch) and being mindful of oncoming traffic (ran straight down the centre of the road, arms and legs windmilling) I slowly approached the plants in question (I arrived panting, bent over, hands on knees with snot streaming down my face - cheers for all that, covid) and suddenly recalled an image from James Merryweather's Britain's Ferns of well-spaced, bright green 'shuttlecocks' across a woodland floor....could this be Ostrich Fern, I wondered. On Skye? Surely not, I had gen for somewhere near Elgin or Aberdeen or somesuch for Ostrich Fern. How could I possibly have missed the fact that there are Skye plants? Surely it had to be something else. I took more pics
There's something that strikes me as being just ever so slightly sinister about the uncoiling fronds, a bit like rearing cobra heads maybe? Or perhaps more like The Alien when it uncoils from the wall in Ripley's escape pod? Anyway, it turns out that these really are Ostrich Ferns - this being a brand new plant for me, my 46th species of fern and my 1499th species of wild plant seen in Britain. Which species will be number 1500, I wonder?
Back indoors I jumped online and dragged up the BSBI map for Ostrich Fern Matteuccia struthiopteris. Guess what - it's already known from this very patch of Dunvegan roadside and has been there since at least 1976! Grrrrr....that's an annoyance. It also means I need to interrogate the database a lot more closely than I have been, it's not like me to miss a glaringly obvious lifer growing in my home Vice County!
Music time. It turns out that there aren't too many ostrich-related songs on YouTube that are suitable for folks aged over four-and-a-half. Happily I found this one by Steppenwolf, the band that apparently did more than Born to be Wild... As ever, hope you enjoy!
I recently found myself in Portree with half an hour to spare so, never being one to waste an opportunity, I set off to find a dandelion to key through using my copy of the recently published BSBI Field Handbook to British & Irish Dandelions. I can spend whole days in the hills and not see a flowering dandelion, but it's a different story in a town and it didn't take too long to track down a suitable dandelion. I papped the heck out of it, covering as many angles as possible, made a note of the habitat and grid reference, sliced it off at ground level with a knife (the taproot will survive this process and will continue to put up new growth) and popped it into a ziploc bag, ready to key through the following day.
Growing on the near vertical side of a shallow roadside ditch
Only partially open flowerhead, but it was the best example I could find
Note how the lowest few leaf lobes have toothed margins
Eye-catching lobes on the leaves, they reminded me of bluntly rounded arrowheads
The first thing to realise with dandelions is that there are some 240 species in Britain and, at first glance, they all look frighteningly similar to each other. The second thing to realise is that there's an easy method that will help you whittle those 240 species into a more manageable number. Well, maybe not 'easy', but certainly doable provided the dandelion is in good shape, is flowering, hasn't been trampled/mown/grazed, isn't heavily shaded or otherwise stressed and you're looking at it in the springtime through to mid-summer. Oh, and you need the handbook. Otherwise forget it.
To get a dandelion to species you first have to work out which section it belongs to (there are nine sections in the British flora) and then key your way through the species in that group. The bulk of this post will be highly abbreviated versions of the handbook's keys accompanied by images that hopefully show you the various features mentioned, eventually working our way through to a specific identity. I'm not saying it'll be professional (because it certainly won't be!) but hopefully it'll be educational and might even get you thinking about tackling your own local dandelions.
First we need to figure out which of the nine sections of dandelion (Taraxacum) our plant belongs to. Unsurprisingly, the first key in the handbook is the Key to the sections of Taraxacum found in Britain and Ireland. I'll run our plant through it and highlight the option that works best in red. If anybody reading this has red-green colour blindness, drop me a comment and I'll change the colour. Otherwise I shall carry on in red.
1) Plants medium to robust, outer exterior bracts >7mm, capitula usually >30mm when fully open >>3
Outer exterior bracts are >7mm and, were it fully open, the flower would be c50mm diameter
3) Leaves linear to lanceolate, shortly lobed to unlobed, exterior bracts appressed >> Palustria
3) Leaves broader, usually distinctly lobed, exterior bracts appressed to reflexed >>4
4) Leaves simple, smooth and flat, capitula deep orange, rare plants of Scottish cliffs >> Crocea
4) Lowland plants, or if in mountains leaves dark, hairy and often crisped >>5
5) Exterior bracts appressed, ligule stripe usually red, pollen usually absent, uplands >> Spectabilia
5) Exterior bracts various, ligule stripe usually solid, not red, pollen absent or not, various habitats >>6
6) Leaves with dark spots on upper surface, pollen often absent >> Naevosa
6) Leaves lacking dark spots above, pollen often present >>7 (through a microscope I could see pollen)
7) Outer exterior bracts >10mm, leaf mid-rib solid green or solid red to purple >> Taraxacum
7) Outer exterior bracts rarely >10mm, leaf mid-rib interwoven red and green strands >>8
8) Exterior bracts arcuate, lateral leaf-lobes usually hamate, pollen present, common plants >> Hamata
8) Exterior bracts usually straight, lateral leaf-lobes not hamate, pollen often absent >> Celtica
We need to understand what 'arcuate' and 'hamate' mean before progressing through that particular couplet. I didn't know what either word meant until I looked them up, something that happens quite often when I'm keying stuff and probably the main reason I can't get my head around parasitic wasps!
Imagine an exterior bract that is sticking straight up against the flowerhead. Now imagine glueing a pen to the outer tip of that exterior bract and then rolling the pen a quarter turn downwards. The bract would now be curved outwards and downwards with a nice even bend. This is arcuate.
Hamate is the term used for when the front of an individual lobe exhibits a convex curve and the trailing edge of that same lobe has a concave edge. In practice this isn't always as clear cut as it sounds, but it's a distinctive shape all the same. Think of a curved shark fin and you'll be in the right kind of area.
This would be a heck of a lot more professional looking if I had PhotoShop....
So now we can run through the key to Taraxacum sections and, with a fair degree of confidence, say our plant is from section Hamata. This cuts us down from 240 species right the way down to just 19. Now we're making progress! The species in section Hamata are all common and widespread throughout Britain, are found in woodland, grassland, gardens and wasteland and are largely confined to the lowlands below 500 metres. That's what the handbook says anyway. All of that fits in with my plant, so far so good.
There are nineteen couplets to the section Hamata key. Thankfully our plant drops out pretty quickly. Again I'll highlight the part of the couplet that fits in red.
1) Species lacking an obvious border to the exterior bracts >>2
1) Species with a pale border to the exterior bracts >>12
It's an ugly pic, but it does show the pale border quite well (if you squint)
12) Mostly medium-sized plant, some exterior bracts <3.5mm wide >>14
13) Distal margin to lobes entire or with teeth, interlobes green, bracts not purplish >> pseudohamatum
13) Distal margin to proximal lobes dentate with large teeth, interlobes smudged blackish, exterior bracts suffused purplish >> lamprophyllum
No black smudging evident on the inter-lobes
No purple colour on the exterior bracts
And now, finally, I've dropped out to species - Taraxacum pseudohamatum. Next I need to read through the species account in the handbook to make sure it all makes sense and then whack it on the Dandelions (Taraxacum) of Britain and Ireland FB Group for confirmation/correction.
The species accounts give a lot more detail than can be gleaned from the keys. I double-checked various features; outer exterior bract length 10-12mm and shiny green on the underside contrasting with the paler, more pruinose upperside (warning: the text says the upperside of the bracts are often suffused purplish, which is the opposite of what couplet 13 in the key says!)
Detail of outer exterior bracts - upper and undersides
Happy that the ID had been clinched by the extra confirmatory characters mentioned in the species account, I went ahead and posted on the Dandelion FB Group. And waited. Happily, Alex Prendergast, one of the 'tame experts' on that group quickly came back with "Yep, pseudohamatum". I checked the BSBI maps to see its distribution and was genuinely surprised to find that it was entirely 'new' to the Inner Hebrides! Oh cool, I quickly let BSBI Recorder Stephen Bungard know the good news and a short while later the BSBI maps had been updated to this
Green squares denote post-2020 records
Happy days, and I hope it's not just beginner's luck that I started with a nice easy one.
Music time again. There were a few options for tonight's choice, but seeing as Chris Cornell was one of them the rest quickly dropped away. Here's the great man performing Dandelion live in Chicago 2013. As always, hope you enjoy!
Don't panic, it's not quite as horrific as it sounds. The suffering revolves around the plant in the picture below. It's Common Scurvygrass, (disclaimer: I've since realised it could also be Danish Scurvygrass, it's difficult to say either way with these small specimens) found whilst exploring a nice bit of saltmarsh. I took a few pics but no sample, headed home afterwards and realised I can only safely record it as 'Common Scurvygrass agg' (and not even that now...) But why am I stuck at 'agg'? What are the options? And why am I not happy to leave it at 'aggregate' level?
Common Scurvygrass 'agg'
Without properly grilling it, the plant in the pic could be any of the following taxa:
Cochlearia officinalis ssp. officinalis - a highly variable plant, nationally very common in saltmarshes
Cochlearia officinalis ssp. scotica - old (pre-2000) records from various parts of the Skye coastline
Cochlearia officinalis ssp. atlantica - might not even warrant subspecific status, possibly just a variant
Cochlearia officinalis x Cochlearia danica - may occur where the parents meet - insert facepalm emoji
The good news is that, according to Stace 4 at least, the hybrid isn't supposed to occur in northern Scotland. Of course, the plants won't have read Stace 4 so they may not be playing by his rules. Happily, in this instance Stace's view is entirely backed up by the BSBI map, as can be seen below
Known distribution of the Danish x Common Scurvygrass hybrid in Scotland
So it seems pretty unlikely that my plants (and there were hundreds of them) are the hybrid. Phew. The picture gets quite confusing when you look at the maps for Common Scurvygrass ssp scotica and ssp officinalis. I've jigged the maps so they only show records from the year 2000 onwards. The black dot is situated over the saltmarsh in question.
This is the 2000-2022 map for Common Scurvygrass 'aggregate'
This is the 2000-2022 map for Common Scurvygrass s.s.
This is the 2000-2022 map for Common Scurvygrass ssp. officinalis
And this is the 2000-2022 map for Common Scurvygrass ssp. scotica
For completeness, here's the map for Danish Scurvygrass. Note the linear distribution in the far east - this is where it's colonised and spread along the verges of salted inland roads. I've no clear idea why the hybrid between Danish and Common Scurvygrass doesn't occur on Skye seeing as both parent plants are here, though in truth I guess the same can be said for most of Scotland. Perhaps it's a latitude thing.
2000-2022 map for Danish Scurvygrass Cochlearia danica
Hopefully you will have already noticed that by far the most frequently recorded taxon on Skye is Common Scurvygrass 'agg'. Once I'd crunched down to subspecies level I noticed something interesting; both officinalis and scotica have been recorded from nearby Rum and from the Outer Hebs post-2000, but officinalis has never been recorded from Skye and scotica hasn't been recorded here since 1993. The obvious implication being that Skye's populations of Common Scurvygrass haven't been critically looked at for a number of years (blame the frantic Atlas 2020 square-bashing for that...) However, were they to be critically checked nowadays they should, in theory, belong to the scotica subspecies. That makes sense, right?
I queried this with Stephen Bungard, BSBI Recorder for Skye and the Small Isles (which coincidentally includes Rum, an island he has extensively botanised in the past) who responded with "they certainly aren't all scotica". Aah right, well I'm not about to disagree with him. So what's going on?
The taxonomic boundaries for some of the Cochlearia scurvygrasses are, how can I best put this, let's just say that they are a long way from being universally accepted by all. Different views have been bantered back and forth over the years as to how best to deal with what has become known as the "Cochlearia officinalis Group", which is precisely the group I'm struggling to get to grips with right now.
Generally speaking, the BSBI Handbooks can be considered to be amongst the very best identification works available for the plant families they cover. Scurvygrasses are part of the crucifer (cabbage) family and I happen to own a copy of the Crucifers of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1991. The author, Tim Rich, is an incredible plant scientist and a highly-skilled field botanist and he split the Cochlearia officinalis Group as follows (asterisk denotes the taxa present in the Inner Hebrides):
Clearly Tim didn't just invent these names on the spot, he rigorously followed up type specimens in herbaria, visited type localities and made his own comparisons, measurements, drawings and field observations. He also went on to cultivate many of the species he studied. Hence his interpretation of the C.officinalis Group very definitely holds water. Or it did in 1991. Nowadays DNA analysis has resulted in a huge number of taxonomical upheavals, not least in plants.
The current botanical bible, published in 2019, is Stace 4. It's generally as bang up to date with the latest taxonomical revisions as any Flora out there. Molecular work is still ongoing for many species, but the families at least should be largely sorted. Not surprisingly, Stace treats the C.officinalis Group a little differently to the BSBI Handbook. He breaks it down as follows:
Cochlearia officinalis officinalis - Common Scurvygrass*
Cochlearia officinalis scotica - Common Scurvygrass*
The main differences are that Cochlearia atlantica has been subsumed into Cochlearia scotica which itself has been subsumed into Cochlearia officinalis. Basically, Stace has lumped them into one species, which presumably follows the latest taxonomical findings.
I'll very quickly run this plant through the Cochleariakey in Stace 4, dealing with the relevent half of each couplet only and ignoring anything to do with the fruits (because they haven't formed yet)
1) Flowers in racemes, not solitary, all or mostly without bracts >>2
2) Stems less than 50cm tall >>3
3) Basal leaves cordate to very broadly cuneate at base >>4
4) Upper stem leaves sessile not petiolate, often clasping stem >>5 (this is where C.danica could drop out - I can't see the base of the upper stem leaves in these pics)
5) Biennial to perennial, rarely woody at base >>6
What I need to do next is return to these plants and take accurate measurements of the leaves and petals (and the fruits when they form), take lots more photos and note the precise shape of the leaf bases. I also need to dry some fruits to see whether or not they have reticulate veins before finally coming to a determination as to the subspecies involved. That's the plan, anyway.
And why bother with all that when I could just leave it as 'agg'? Well firstly, because how else will I learn these things if I don't put myself through the entire identification process. Secondly, Stephen says they aren't all scotica, yet that's the only subspecies so far known from Skye - I want to know what's going on there. Could they be the mysterious atlantica, or is officinalis here too? Seems odd that it wouldn't be if it really is on Rum and the Outer Hebs. And lastly, because it could be, oh I dunno...fun?
It's been shown that if you bring mountaintop Cochlearia pyrenaica down to low levels and cultivate it through several generations, it will end up pretty much the same as Cochlearia officinalis, strongly suggesting they are in fact one in the same species. For this reason, Stephen records all coastal scurvygrasses around Skye as Cochlearia officinalis agg (apart from when it's C.danica obviously). And seeing as he is by far and away the most prolific plant recorder in the area, that's the reason why the bulk of Skye's more recent Common Scurvygrass records are of the agg.
Blimey, that was a lot of effort to say that I couldn't ID a plant! Bet you can't wait until I start on the whitlowgrasses.
Right, music time. There's no decent reason for tonight's choice of toonage other than I do enjoy listening to a bit of early Korn. This is Somebody Someone from way back in 1999. If anybody's interested, Korn have just released a new album and are still touring. They'll be playing Download on 10th June, I think it's their only UK date this year. Time to get that stomp on, hope you enjoy!
To have even the slightest chance of successfully seeing a thousand species of plant this year, I need to visit known sites that hold known plant species. One such site is Leitir Fura on the Sleat Peninsular in the southern part of Skye. It's an area of extensive woodland with open hilltops and a number of waterfalls and caves. It's also reputed to be about the most reliable spot on Skye to see Adders. I guess I've just been unlucky. Repeatedly.
The undoubted botanical highlight at Leitir Fura, as far as I know, is Killarney Fern. Last year I found gen for four caves where it occurs. I tried three of the caves, found it in each and then found it at a new site too. A short while later, I went back with Neil Spiderman Roberts and we found it in a couple more caves. Chances are there's loads of it down there, it's hardly a well-explored area.
Path to Leitir Fura marked in red, the blue dots are the Killarney Fern caves
I was accompanied on my Killarney Fern Quest by one of the new lasses at work. She professed an interest in the outdoors and the bosses kindly said, "Seth will take you out, he knows everywhere. But there will always be some kind of a mission involved". Not that I knew any of this until she realised we shared the same days off work and invited herself out with me. Happily, she's a complete nutter and we get along very well together.
One thing that seems to be rather poorly understood is the distribution of oak species across Skye. Ignoring the occasional planted alien tree, there shouldn't really be too many issues; are they Pedunculate or Sessile or are both present? In reality things seem a bit more complicated than that with the default setting seemingly being 'intermediate oak'. I guess getting to grips with Skye's oaks could be a useful project for the Botany Group to tackle once the fern project finishes next spring. All of which is the long-winded explanation for this next image being captioned Quercus sp (and nothing at all to do with the fact I didn't check it properly...)
Quercus sp in flower
Pushing onwards, and occasionally covering as much as a hundred feet before the wee lady needed to stop and take yet more pics...bless, we eventually covered the two miles walk and arrived at the point where we had to clamber down through the trees and enter the Lost World that the Killarney Fern calls home.
Now might be a good time to explain that Killarney Fern is a little unusual, even for a fern. It comes in two forms - one form has fronds much like any other fern (the sporophyte generation) and doesn't occur on Skye. The other form looks just like green fuzzy felt (the gametophyte generation) and that's the one that does occur on Skye. Tiny tufts of green fuzzy felt growing on dry ledges in damp caves. To quote from this JNCC site:
Most sporophyte populations are very small. However, the gametophyte generation has been recorded from numerous localities (Rumsey et al. 1998), persisting in a state of indefinitely suspended development under present conditions.
I'm not properly clued up on how the gametophytes came to be dotted around the countryside, or how long they are able to survive in their 'indefinitely suspended development', but I suspect each tiny clod of fuzzy felt is very ancient indeed. Certainly I wouldn't pick a bit just to have a closer look. Thus far I've yet to find a clump growing anywhere accessible enough that I can bring my eye to it rather than the other way around, they do grow in annoyingly tight spots! Anyway, here's the shitpics I know you've all been waiting for
Killarney Fuzzy Felt Trichomanes speciosum with sprigs of moss
Killarney Fern is one of those plants that I love. Partly because it's so damned unusual, partly because it's a rare find, but mostly because Ghostie hasn't seen it. Gloat? Moi? How very rude!
Outside of the cave entrance we soon found a ledge full of my first Wood Anemones of the year, always a joy to see.
"Oi, Man Slut! What are these pretty white flowers over here?"
So yeah, I seem to have acquired a new nickname. Not my idea. Here, have some pics of the 'pretty white flowers'
Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa
I decided (wrongly) that the images were way too bright, so played about a bit with the camera settings. Definite improvements on the depth of field, but overall far too dark. I could probably fix them by editing, but would more likely ruin them entirely. Anyway, here are the results from my tinkering with stuff I know nothing about
And I liked how this one turned out, it looks as though it's taking a bow!
We quit the Killarney Fern caves and headed back to the car. Two miles each way, a bit of faffing once on site, and a mere FIVE HOURS had passed! I feel we may need to start our days out together somewhat earlier in the future. Either that or I'll have to confiscate that phone of hers...
I ended the day with 556 out of the hoped for 1000 species safely secured. Not too shabby for the end of March!
Music time again folks. Why this track? Well, I guess it's just too bloody bangin' not to be aired once in a blue moon. Plus Fergie's in it... Hope you enjoy!
Still on a high from yesterday's Inverness Scillafest, I headed out into the wilds once more, ready for more 'slum botany' action. I stayed local this time and meandered my way across to Kyleakin, a small town situated in the eastern corner of Skye. In an attempt to Google the population of Kyleakin (apparently it's around 300) I came across the legend of Saucy Mary, a Norwegian princess who used to flash her boobs at passing boats once they'd paid her a toll. Which helps explain why the Kyleakin pub is called Saucy Mary. Personally,I can't say I've ever spotted much in the way of exposed flesh whilst passing through. Perhaps I simply need to pay a toll...
There's a woodland walk around the Kyleakin Hills which I've yet to explore named Cnoc a'Mhadaidh Ruaidh (Gaelic for Hill of the Fox). Here's the route I initially planned to take
Circular route around Cnoc a'Mhadaidh Ruaidh
What actually happened was that I parked up at the start point, walked maybe a hundred metres, left the path to check out some polypodies and got chatting with a fisherman who is semi-retired, grows palm trees as a hobby and owns the fifty or so acres I was currently standing on. He's a pretty cool guy and we spent the best part of a couple of hours chatting away about how best he could rewild his land in a sympathetic way (I think I successfully persuaded him that planting Sitka is a bad idea), explained that he ought do his best to get rid of the worryingly large amounts of Shallon and Prickly Heath present, and to keep the Rhododendron in check too. Happily, he's been doing precisely that already, as well as planting native trees and not sowing any of those godawful 'wildflower' mixes. He also gave me permission to bring the Skye Nature Group onto his land when we come here to do the hill loop walk.
Shallon Gaultheria shallon and Prickly Heath Gaultheria mucronata growing here side by side
Despite the miniscule sori, this is just Polypodium vulgare and not the hoped for hybrid
The day was turning very pleasantly warm and we watched maybe thirty queen bumblebees buzzing at the catkins of a stand of sallows he'd planted a few years back. I even glimpsed a butterfly whizz by, probably a Peacock but my first of the year whatever it was. Lots of small flies and quite a few springtime flowers emerging too.
Colt's-foot Tussilago farfara
Climbing Corydalis Ceratocapnos claviculata
Hare's-tail Cottongrass Eriophorum vaginatum
A quick wander further up Old Kyle Farm Road was profitable, from an aliens point of view. Lots of Montbretia coming up in the verges, several Darwin's Barberry bushes, a few Fuchsia bushes, a single Early Pampas-grass clump (that sure won't remain as a single clump for long!) and a few Himalayan Cotoneaster bushes. Best of all though was a flowering clump of Pulmonaria. I now know there are several possibilities on offer, so after taking plenty of pics I bagged a sprig for keying and microscopic confirmation back indoors.
Bethlehem-sage Pulmonaria saccharata
It keyed through to Bethlehem-sage, key features being the upper leaf surface exhibiting the full mix of short, long and glandular hairs and the corolla tube having hairs continuing below the ring of hairs halfway down the throat. I found Bethlehem-sage new to Skye last year, but this was the first time I'd seen it flowering. This roadside clump represents the second Skye site and is just the third record for Scotland. It must be massively overlooked elsewhere.
I next ventured down into the bustling metropolis of Kyleakin itself, intending to have a quick skirmish around the edges for pavement weeds and garden throw-outs. It all started off pretty much as expected, Procumbent Pearlwort, Ribwort Plantain, dandelions (I shall have to tackle one of those soon!), Herb-Robert, the usual suspects.
And then I spied flowering stuff in the roadside verge just above the shoreline. Moving closer I found myself in a veritable smorgasbord of garden throw-outs, waifs and strays. I didn't think to take a pic of the area in question, so here's a Google Streetview screenshot instead
Kyleakin on a busy day. Note the Skye Bridge in the background
It seems that the locals, like most folks here on Skye, find it perfectly acceptable to dump their garden waste at the top of the shoreline. Can't say I agree in the slightest with that, but it does certainly add a bit of botanical variety to proceedings. Not all plants present were naturalised, or even partially naturalised. In fact I found a slice of Rockery Saxifrage that was so recently dumped onto moss-covered rocks that the flowers hadn't even started to wilt yet! But some of the plants here were countable
Rockery Saxifrage Saxifraga 'Arendsii' freshly dumped and not even rooted!
Of the stuff that was rooted, and appeared to be thriving, was this patch of Lovage, which is a plant I've never seen before in the wild (and you still haven't, I hear you cry. W'evs, get over it)
Lovage Levisticum officinale surrounded by last year's dead stems
And then there was this thing, which I reckon is Garden Hyacinth 'Carnegie', also known as Common or Dutch Hyacinth. Happily the local BSBI Recorder agrees, both the Lovage and the Hyacinth are entirely new to Skye.
Hyacinth 'Carnegie' Hyacinthus orientalis (I think)
I've seen convincingly naturalised Hyacinths before, so I'm not unduly worried about the 'tickability' of this particular plant. Mind you, it's still going on my 1000 Species Challenge list (I can hear Ghostie's cries of Cheat! from here)
Lots of Three-cornered Garlic Allium triquetrum
I was a little surprised to discover that there's only one previous record for Three-cornered Garlic on Skye, found in 2019. And somewhat less surprised to discover that the other site is also close to habitation.
Wallflower Erysimum cheiri
There is one previous Skye record of Wallflower, somewhere near Elgol from 1980. That record comes with the comment "planted deliberately in a wild situation but not established", which could render my plant as the first 'wild' Wallflower on Skye. Then again....
At the time, I had these down as a tulip species. But back indoors I changed my mind, the bud shape seems all wrong for a tulip. One to go back and check again soon, they should be flowering by now. If anybody happens to know what they are, do please feel free to ping me a comment.
I think these are just a pink cultivar of Primrose Primula vulgaris, rather than Hybrid Primrose Primula x pruhonicensis. Hybrid Primrose is definitely on my radar, but I don't believe these are it. There's a patch of pink-coloured primroses in Uig Wood which I keep meaning to properly key through. They'll be up by now, I shall have to give them their annual visit soon.
I have, of course, saved the very best for last. My mind was totally blown when I came across this beast, I think I had to sit down for a second whilst I gathered my wits once more. Behold, I give you The Cabbage Thing!
The Cabbage Thing!
It's at times like this when that fine line between what is real and what is surreal begins to blur. If I grew my own veg I might be able to figure out what this thing is. I initially thought Brussel's Sprout due to the extensive scarring, but realistically it's being left as Brassica oleracea cv (cv = cultivated variety) which is probably as sensible a suggestion as anything. I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but it's new to the vice county too.
Whenever I'm out and about botanising locally, I compile everything onto a spreadsheet and ping it off to Stephen Bungard, BSBI Recorder for Skye. If ever I find a plant new to the area he lets me know. His response to this particular spreadsheet was a little longer than usual
New to VC104
Brassica oleracea cultivated variant
Hyacinthus orientalis
Hyacinth
Levisticum officinale
Lovage
New to NG72
Allium triquetrum
Three-cornered Garlic
Erysimum cheiri
Wallflower
Escallonia rubra var. macrantha
Escallonia
Lonicera nitida
Wilson's Honeysuckle
Lunaria annua
Honesty
Pulmonaria saccharata
Bethlehem-sage
Veronica x franciscana
Hedge Veronica (V. elliptica x speciosa)
New to N72M
Berberis darwinii
Darwin's Barberry
Cortaderia richardii
Early Pampas-grass
New to N72N
Berberis darwinii
Darwin's Barberry
Ha, I'll take that! I may have spent more time travelling, and then chatting, than actual botanising but at least it added a few interesting plants to the BSBI maps. Even though every single one of them is an alien.
Music time. One thing you learn to deal with (or ignore) when slum botanising is having folks looking at you like you're a weirdo. Well, no arguments there I guess. Anyway, talking of aliens and weird looks have a bit of this. Hope you enjoy!
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