‘Mystery plant at Achmelvich’ Update

May 17th 2023

‘Mystery plant at Achmelvich’ Update

The article by Ian Evans ‘Mystery Plant at Achmelvich’ which was posted on our website a month ago will fill in the background to this update.

Since I had only managed to photograph the mystery seed heads in June 2022 I was determined to see this plant in flower!

Friday 12th May 2023 was a beautiful calm, sunny with clouds day. Perfect for photographing plants.

My head said “seed heads were to the right of the track” leading towards the north corner of Achmelvich beach. My head was wrong. I should have trusted to Andy Summers’ map from 2018, his location was spot on.

There it was, a solitary clump of Pasqueflower, Pulsatilla vulgaris. It was a good time to visit; the plant had one unopened flower along with two partially and two fully open flowers. There were also four flower heads that had gone over and two fresh fruiting heads.

Although this plant shouldn’t really be here it is quite spectacular.

A good result and it’s nice to now have the ‘complete story’ in my archives!

David Haines

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