Lochinver: plant-life along the rip-rap
Back in January we posted an account of the New Year Plant Hunt undertaken by members of the Field Club as a contribution to a national survey of plants in flower organised by the BSBI.
On 26th and 31st December 2023 we logged 102 species of flowering plants and ferns along the main street in Lochinver between the Medical Practice and the Games Field (1km grid square NC0922). Regrettably, but not unexpectedly, only three of these were actually in flower.
June update
On 13th June 2024, I repeated this exercise, focussing on the well-vegetated rip-rap along the seaward side of the road between the Church of Scotland and the Games Field (photo 1). I added a further 34 species, some of which are illustrated here.
One of the surprises was the abundance in places of the small fern maidenhair spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes, otherwise restricted in the village to a few sections of mortared wall (photo 2). Beside one patch there was another example of several cotoneasters that occur locally as escapes from cultivation; putting a name to it will require ripe berries.
Escapes
There were a few pale-yellow flowers remaining on a clump of tuberous comfrey Symphytum tuberosum (photo 3), first noted here a few years ago. A native of western, central and southern Europe, it is believed to have been introduced to Scotland as a medicinal herb, and was first found in the wild along the Water of Leith in 1765. Since it is not a showy plant, I wonder when and how it reached Lochinver.
My next discovery was a gardener’s favourite, honesty Lunaria annua (photo 4). Hailing originally from Italy and the Balkans, it has been grown in the British Isles, for its reddish-purple flowers and ornamental fruits, since at least 1571. Here, in Lochinver, it may well have just hopped across the road.
Another species that may also have originated in the Balkans is feverfew Tanacetum parthenium, which is found throughout Lochinver and on a few roadside verges elsewhere in Assynt. It was ‘grown in gardens for medicinal use by medieval times’ and is ‘still widely cultivated as an ornamental in gardens’ (Plant Atlas 2020). Its scented leaves can be recognised throughout out the year, but the attractive flowerheads appear only in early summer (photos 5-6).
Woody species
In places the bouldery rip-rap has been colonised by a variety of woody plants, forming thickets that are periodically cut back. Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus is the commonest of these, spreading widely by means of its wind-borne fruits. Passing one patch, I noticed that some leaves on its vigorous re-growth were blistered (photo 7). Turning them over revealed that the undersides of the blisters contain miniature forests of swollen hairs or erinea (photo 8). These are inhabited by large numbers of the microscopic gall mite Aceria pseudoplatani. Like all gall-forming organisms, it has evolved the ability to persuade a chosen host to divert resources to harbour and feed it. Sycamore is native to the mountains of south and central Europe, and was introduced either in the 16th century or during Roman times, depending on whom you consult.
A rose identified
Another group of woody plants, the roses, includes some 25 native and introduced species. They lead irregular sex lives, resulting in a large number of hybrids, and can often only be identified by an expert.
On this occasion, I was particularly taken with a pale-pink-flowered example, bearing vicious-looking thorns on its older stems (photos 9-11). I collected a specimen, and later tackled the multi-page key in the current Flora (Stace, 4th edition, 2019), with help from a well-illustrated older work (Graham and Primavesi, 1993). Pleasingly, I think that I can now put a name to it, glandular dog-rose Rosa squarrosa.
Telling features are the smooth upper surfaces and double-toothed margins of the leaves, the hairless surfaces and stalks of the fruits, lobed sepals that reflex as the fruits mature, and the presence of red, stalked glands on stipules and elsewhere. The Flora of Assynt (2002) includes local records of some 14 species and hybrids, and this one would have been mapped under the former name Rosa canina group Dumales.
Other woody species that catch the eye on the rip-rap are small saplings of ash Fraxinus excelsior, and just one of wych elm Ulmus glabra, amongst the boulders at the southern end (photo 12). Since both of these trees have been decimated by fungal disease elsewhere in the British Isles, it is good to see that they are still propagating themselves in this part of Assynt, un-noticed by most passers-by, and in the company of many other interesting plants.
Ian M. Evans