Wood small-reed: a roadside rarity at Little Assynt
Introduction
This is the story of a locally rare plant and how three notable botanists have contributed to what we know about it in Assynt.
Wood small-reed or bush grass Calamagrostis epigejos, is a tall tussock-forming grass with creeping rhizomes, found in open places, usually on heavy soils (photo 1). It has dense heads of flowers/fruits (photo 2), with a passing resemblance to those of common reed Phragmites australis, although it is more closely related to the bents Agrostis species.
Although widespread in England, it is rare in Highland Scotland, where it is almost entirely restricted to the west coast. The photos are of a patch in my garden at Nedd; one plant was introduced many years ago from a local source, and it has since established itself.
The three botanists are John Anthony, Chris Ferreira and Pat Evans.
John Anthony (1894-1972) worked for many years on a Flora of Sutherland; it was completed after his death by J.B. Kenworthy, and published in 1976 as John Anthony’s Flora of Sutherland.
Chris (R.E.C.) Ferreira (1931-2019) was a geobotanist and ecologist; the fieldwork for his monumental Vegetation Survey of North West Sutherland (SNH, 1995) was carried out between 1977 and 1990.
Pat (P.A.) Evans (1929-2015), a Leicester-born botanist and ecologist, was joint editor of the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans, 1988) and lead author of the Flora of Assynt (Evans, Evans and Rothero, 2002).
First records, 1950s
The earliest local records for this species are in John Anthony’s Flora of Sutherland (p.174), which contains the entry Assynt (Stoer, Oldany). Anthony’s manuscript card index, which I have, expands the former record to ‘1958…Stoer…B. Flannigan…29/04.28’. This almost certainly relates to one of the local lists, gathered by 10km square, for the first Atlas of the British Flora (BSBI, 1962). I suspect that the grid reference for Stoer is a nominal one, assigned by Anthony, and the second record is by Anthony himself; there is no further information, and the species has not been found since at either Stoer or Oldany.
A new site, 1981
The next reference is in the unpublished report of Chris Ferreira’s Vegetation Survey. Under site 4.4.4, Achadhantuir wooded ravine (NC02/12: 083249-091248), on pp. 4.81-82, he notes (photo 3), ‘On the sloping crest of the ravine here, a large patch of Calamagrostis epigejos was found which measured about 27 x 3 m in size. A bit further east another, but smaller, patch of this grass occurs.’ He surveyed this area on 11th June 1981, according to one of his Field Note Books, which I have recently seen.
Pat and I visited this area on 18th August 1999, and were able to confirm the continued presence of wood small-reed, just outside a substantial fence, at the estimated grid reference (pre-g.p.s.) of NC086250. There is a sketch map in our files (photo 4), and we shall hope to up-date the record later this year.
A second new site, 1999 and 2015
There is a straight section of the A837 road along Loch Assynt, between the two Little Assynt carparks (NC1625), along which traffic speeds (photo 5). On the south side, adjacent to the loch (NC166254), is a large unsurfaced parking area, much used by visitors accessing its shores (red arrow on map, photo 6).
On 16th August 1999, Pat and I parked there to complete the listing of the plants in that part of tetrad NC12S for our Flora of Assynt. My diary records that shortly afterwards she found wood small-reed new to the area ‘in the ditch on the north-west side of the road’. We wondered, at that time, how often it had gone overlooked, there or anywhere else in the parish, since very little was flowering, and the tussocks are not unlike those of the very abundant purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea.
A later visit, on 18th August, located more in the woodland behind the ditch, all of it on ground that is now part of the Little Assynt Estate purchased by the Culag Community Woodland Trust in 2000. A deer fence was later erected along the roadside.
Iain Macdonald, an Assynt-born botanist and ecologist, who works for SNH, recorded a small stand of the plant at this site on 1st November 2015, across the road from the parking area, as he was cycling along the A837. He also noted, interestingly, a rather larger stand in front of a roadside barrier, on the south-east side of the road (NC165252).
A third new site, 2006
On 18th March, 2006, Gordon Rothero and I were botanising the northern bank of the gorge of the River Inver, the only occasion on which we (or probably anyone else) have looked in detail at this quite challenging ground. He found a good clump of wood small-reed at NC10832348, in the vicinity of a huge otter sprainting mound.
Up-date, 2025
About six years ago, the ditch on the northern verge of the A837 at Little Assynt was drastically re-profiled by employees of the Highland Council, with the resultant spoil being taken away and dumped on verges at Torgawn on the JMT Quinag estate. We were uncertain at the time how much of the wood small-reed had survived and, on 21st April 2025, I thought I would check it out.
Parking at the usual spot, I crossed the road and was pleased to find the first plant just in front of the deer fence (NC16662546). I then walked along the verge to the west and found tussocks of the grass locally abundant in places, on both sides of the deer fence (photo 7), for some 200m (to NC16532531). There were just a few old fruiting heads (photo 8), which are, thankfully, quite conspicuous. I continued west to a culvert (at NC16452523), but did not find any more on that side of the road. However, there were a couple of spikes on the south-east side of the road, in front of some crash barriers (at NC16492526), which must be the same site as that recorded by Iain Macdonald.
Treading carefully, since vehicles were passing at speed, I then made my way back to the car, and then had a look at the another 100m of the north-west verge, finding just one large spike of flowers in the ditch 20m further on (NC16672548), but after that no more (as far as NC16712554). The records are summarised on the map (photo 6; green dots and a line are where I found it, and black crosses mark the area searched).
A bonus on this search was the sheer abundance this year of two spring-flowering plants, on the sunlit banks behind the deer fence, common dog-violet Viola riviniana and primrose Primula vulgaris (photos 9-10). There were also a few patches of the much less common wood anemone Anemone nemorosa (photo 11), which is always worth noting.
Rare or overlooked?
We can’t be certain. The plant-life of Assynt has been more thoroughly recorded than that of any other Highland parish, but there still substantial areas to explore and more to discover, including, maybe, new stands of this handsome grass.
Ian M. Evans