2004 Morayshire 10th to 11th July Main Meeting
The weather theme for the past few weeks had been rain, rain and yet more rain. Guess what? This meeting proved to be no different. Eight of us met at lan Green's house on the Friday evening. He very kindly and generously provided us with supper whilst it poured outside. It eventually cleared and we went out into the evening air for a couple of hours, but it rained on and off the whole time - one lady even used a rhubarb leaf as an umbrella!
Ian's garden started us off with a good selection of arable weeds, Veronica agrestis(green field speedwell), Lamium hybridum (cut-leaved dead-nettle), Cardamine corvmbosa (New Zealand bittercress, an alien from nurseries), Galeopsis tetrahit (common hemp-nettle), Alopecurus aequalis (orange foxtail) and Campanula rapunculus (rampion bellflower, which appeared last year). On his verge he demonstrated the differences between the fruits of Rumex longifolius (northern dock) with its three wings and no tubercles, R. obtusifolius (broad-leaved dock) with its toothed wings and tubercle, and the hybrid R. longifolius x R. obtusifolius (R. x hybridus) which showed a weird selection of toothed wings and warts. The road verge being relatively close to the sea had Spergularia marina (lesser sea-spurrey) and Puccinellia distans (reflexed salt-marsh grass). Across the way is an old airfield site which is also used as an unofficial dump which threw up a few exotica: Sedum spurium (Caucasian stonecrop). Geranium x magnificum (purple cranesbill), Viola x wittrockiana (garden pansy), Vinca minor (lesser periwinkle), Amisinckia micrantha(common fiddleneck) and, after a fire last year even Botrychium lunaria (moonwort) has sprung up. Alchemilla filicaulis ssp. vestita and A. mollis (lady's mantles), Kniphofia x praecox (great red hot poker), Geranium x oxonianum (Druce's cranesbill), Veronica longifolia (garden speedwell) and even Rheum x hybridum(rhubarb) all added to the tally.
Saturday morning broke grey and totally overcast with a very cool on-shore wind keeping an osprey glued to its perch. Fourteen of us met at our first venue at Boat o' Brig right on the banks of the peaty River Spey. Without warning we were deluged; we looked a sorry sight all logged up in waterproofs and umbrellas. What are we doing out on a day like this? However with people around like Bill Hawkins there is never a dull moment. lan galvanises us into action and our first plant was Tanacetum macrophyllum (rayed tansy) close to the river itself. Trying to keep notes, and to keep them dry, proves difficult! A short walk through woodland by the Spey takes us through sweet-smelling Myrrhis odorata (sweet Cicely) and several tall specimens of a rather handsome member of the Asteraceae, Doronicum pardalianches (leopard's- bane) and beaten down by the constant rain we found Allium carinatum (keeled garlic) with its gentle onion smell and long grass-like appendages hanging from the bulbils.
Crossing the river takes in the adjacent vice-county (94 into 95). Trifolium medium (zigzag clover) by the roadside and tall statuesque Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower) grow adjacent to the now gone over Symphytum tuberosum (tuberous comfrey), apparently quite common in these parts. Colours were around in the form of Claytonia sibirica (pink purslane) and Geranium sylvaticum (wood cranesbill) and a rather robust Galium boreale (northern bedstraw). On the banks of the swollen Spey we found Carex aquatilis (water sedge), the leaves of Rumex pseudoalpinus (monk's rhubarb), Myosotis secunda (creeping forget-me-not), and growing in the sandy soil a fully flowering Teesdalia nudicaulis (shepherd's cress) which down south was over by May.
Next stop was to a bucolic car park on the outskirts of Fochabers next to a garden centre which probably accounted for the established Acaena anserinifolia (bronze pirri-pirri-bur), Clinopodium grandiflorum (greater calamint), Levisticum officinale (lovage) and Euphorbia dulcis (sweet spurge) that we found there. Nearly eliminated by a tyre track was a piece of Huperzia selago (fir clubmoss). An unusual bramble was found which had the smallest closed-up pink flowers on very red stems, but the older stems were a pale white; this was Rubus cockbumianus (white-stemmed bramble).
Nearby is a series of woodland paths called the Winding Walks which took us through mature coniferous plantations. Droplets of rain were held to perfection by the needles of Tsuga heterophylla (western hemlock); by the path was the invading Gaultheria mucronata (prickly heath) which we found later in flower resembling a miniature lily of the valley. In the moss, almost at eye-level, was a diminutive orchid, Goodyera repens (creeping lady's tresses). Clambering over tree roots and broken branches down a valley brought us to a beautifully opened Trientalis europaea (chickweed wintergreen) its one perfect white bloom like a beacon in the gloom. We came out into a more open area and here there were seven flowering specimens of Linnaea borealis (twinflower), apparently Linnaeus' favourite flower. A few miles to the north, and to the east of the hamlet of Spey Bay, is a pine forest where lan last year found a substantial colony of Corallorhiza trifida (coralroot orchid), now in fruit. Leading us a merry dance through the trees we came to an open heathy glade to discover an easterly outpost of Ophioglossum azoricum (small adder's-tongue). Then bottoms in the air to look at the miniscule Radiola linoides (allseed) and a northern eyebright, Euphrasia arctica ssp. borealis.
An evening jaunt to an old rubbish tip outside Elgin revealed a few aliens. First up was Artemisia ludoviciana, and in the pit proper there was an unimaginable raft of colours of Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) including some of the most deepest red as well as doubles; garden escapes were established here such as deep pink Clarkia unguiculata (clarkia), light pink Iberis umbellata (garden candytuft) and Saponaria ocymoides (rock soapwort).
Sunday morning saw us on the west side of the River Spey at Garmouth. Again it was very overcast with spots of rain, and once more we put on waterproofs, but it proved unnecessary in the end. lan showed a specimen of Picris hieracioides (hawkweed ox-tongue) which according to the books and the flora atlas is not found in north Scotland. Throughout the day we saw many species rare to these latitudes which we Sassenachs take for granted, e.g. Carex sylvatica (wood sedge) and Carduus crispus (welted thistle).
Why is it when you go out with a group of botanists and you have a plant with all its relevant parts and a copy of big Stace that you cannot get a consensus on it? One such was a water crowfoot that lan had not seen in flower before, but the most likely candidate seemed to be Ranunculus peltatus (pond water crowfoot). Lychnis flos-cuculi covered a small meadow in numbers I hadn't seen before.
Finally Ian took us to an area of heathland followed by bog. Again we were on our hands and knees looking at two of the tiniest plants in Europe, Radiola linoides(allseed) and Anagallis minima (chaffweed). There appeared to be several species of eyebright with most assumed to be Euphrasia nemorosa. A PhD expert in our midst did identify for us an exquisite tiny one with purplish foliage and mauve edged flowers as E. micrantha. In the bog where we risked being bitten by rabid red ants we found Juncus balticus (Baltic rush), Pedicularis palustris (marsh lousewort), handsome Dactylorhiza purpurella (northern marsh orchid), Equisetum fluviatile(water horsetail) and the minutest of them about three inches high, E. variegatum(variegated horsetail).
Without a shadow of a doubt a fantastic two days - thank you lan for all your hard work and your enthusiasm.
STEPHEN CLARKSON