I will use BlueSky to share discoveries of and observations about higher plants, mostly in and around Aberdeen, Scotland
David Elston
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After a bit of dabbling around with sleeves rolled up I managed to coax some lesser bladderwort to the surface of a boggy pool at Loch of Mortlach, Huntly, today. Luckily, the water was warm and there was plenty of dry sphagnum about to clean my hands on. Do pros have tools for this sort of thing?
Mountain everlasting is very rare in Kincardineshire. Not since the 1950s has it been recorded away from the River North Esk near Edzell. So I was delighted to find a nice population by the Water of Dye near Strachan, perhaps where an old hectad-level record relates to.
I've had my eye on this patch of grass near Fettercairn in Kincardineshire for a couple of years now. And finally the surrounding deer fence has become so dilapidated I could get to it. Suspicions confirmed, it's wood small-reed, a scarce plant in these parts.
This patch of herb-rich grassland by the River Ythan contains the only colony of purple milk-vetch known in North Aberdeenshire. 28 flowering heads counted in a 2 x 1 (horizontal) m rectangle. Some heads very young, maybe more will develop. But at the far end of the local rarity scale regardless.
Came to Dornoch on a quest to refresh a 1973 record for the dandelion Taraxacum obliquum. I think mission accomplished within a few metres of the beach car park: the combination of erect outer bracts and tubularly-inrolled ligules are seems distinctive.
In North Aberdeenshire, purple saxifrage is only known from 2 coastal sites near Aberdour. Drostan Leack has a strong population with several recent records and about 100 plants counted today. Not so at Dundarg Castle, last record by Grant Roger in 1956 and all I could find today is in these photos.
Foxtail brome is having a bumper year by the Bridge of Dee roundabout, Aberdeen. Today's total of 45 flowering heads on 13 plants bucks the recent trend of dwindling population size. Most plants were close to the metal railing: fertilised by passing dogs or protected from road spray and weedkiller?
Spring squill was flowering nicely at Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh, today. Then sought without success south of Peterhead, but the roseroot flowers there were in peak condition.
In North Aberdeenshire, wood stitchwort is only known from close to the River Deveron, so it was good find it still present when passing Huntly yesterday. And nice to find alternate-leaved golden-saxifrage and greater tussock-sedge growing nearby
This tiny area of central Aberdeen hosts three common members of the genus Senecio: 1) groundsel, 2) Oxford ragwort and 3) narrow-leaved ragwort. Growing with them are intermediaries between 1) & 2) [I think Welsh groundsel] and between 2) and 3) [though the BSBI DDb has no records of the hybrid].
