Bog myrtle: cherchez la femme
Large areas of the wilder parts of Assynt are covered by a plant community known as wet heath, and one of its glories in spring is flowering bog myrtle Myrica gale.
The All Abilities Path on Little Assynt (NC1626) provides easy access to such areas, as we were reminded on a walk on 4th April, at the start of a long spell of sunny weather. Bog myrtle is scattered over the wetter parts of the landscape (photo 1), but grows really densely parallel to the paths (photo 2), although we are not sure why. The lack of browsing inside the deer fences on Little Assynt has certainly allowed this shrub to flourish, with many stands over a metre tall.
Bog myrtle plants are mostly either male or female and, approaching them to take close-ups, we soon realised that all those we could see were male. The male catkins are up to 15mm long, and crowded together at the ends of the previous year’s shoots (photo 3). Each catkin bears a series of overlapping flowers in which single greenish-yellow bracts, tipped with reddish-brown, protect four stamens with red anthers, which turn yellow after shedding their pollen (photo 4). En masse the effect is very colourful.
We kept an eye open for female plants, not knowing quite what their flowers looked like, but didn’t find any. We later consulted Stella Ross-Craig’s superlative Drawings of British Plants (part XXVII, plate 11; photo 5), after which we were better equipped.
However, it was not until more than a week later, on 16th April, that Ian managed to locate some, on a roadside near Unapool (NC2231). The female catkins are smaller, borne on less sprawly stems (photo 6), and each flower has two dark-red slightly-flattened styles, which look like narrow tongues (photo 7, taken down a microscope). At the time of flowering, buds lower down the stems are just beginning to expand into the delightfully aromatic leaves.
Whether female plants are actually less frequent than males we don’t know, but we shall continue to look out for them, and also for the fruits, which mature in August or September. Let us know if you come across any.
Ian M. Evans and Gwen Richards