Kingoodie Quarry update

The species list has been amended as of 26 August 2010 and the latest version can be seen in the linked Picasa album. Most notable sighting today was of Common Twaylade - past flowering but still obvious. Amazing we did not see it last year.

Glencarse Hill update, 26 July 2010

There is a field just below the main hill which is source of sand and gravel for the local council. It has ecology fundamentally different from the wooded steep slab of basalt which makes up the main part of Glencarse Hill. The first four photos show plants in this environment, namely white and yellow Verbascums (photo1), Weld (photo 2), Scarlet Pimpernel (photo 3) and Musk Mallow (photo 4). All these were growing in an austere environment of little or no soil and extreme dryness. Photo 5 shows the view south towards the Fife hills from the foot of the hill.

Photo 6 shows a wooded area of the hill dominated by Male Fern. Other locally dominant herb layer species are Dog' Mercury and Nettles. Another fern found on a rock face was Black Spleenwort (photo 7.) Ringlet butterflies (photo 8) were common. Nipplewort (photo 9 was found in the wood. There were spectacular docks in flower. See photo 10 for the full size of this collapsed six-foot specimen of what can only be Great Water Dock though there was no water in its vicinity. Photo 11 is a close up of the inflorescence.

Photo 12 is not a picture of a lemon meringue pie but of Bolete Mould. Photo 13 shows an infected specimen of a Boletus sp. Nearby.

Of particular interest from this exped.:

1. Scarlet Pimpernel turns up again – this is supposed to be a rare plant

2. The mass of Verbascums on sand deposits

3. Musk Mallow – also being found quite widely on other sites

4. The magnificent specimen of Great Water Dock.

Craighead Quarry, update 13 July 2010

(PLEASE REFER TO THE PHOTOS IN THE ASSOCIATED PICASA ALBUM - THE LINK IS ON THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE.)

Photo 1 shows the view south across the Carse of Gowrie towards the River Tay seen in the distance. Wood False Brome Grass, in flower, was very abundant. This is a late-flowering grass. Scarlet Pimpernel (photo 2) was widespread in many areas of short grass, more so than at last year's visit.. Usually it grew on the path verges. Another big change from the last visit was the widespread occurrence of Red Catchfly (photos 3 and 4). It mainly grew on sandy banks along the path to the summit. Common Fiddleneck (photo 5) was found at the edge of the path. Agrimony was found in the meadow-like area between the path and the wood. It grew in similar areas to Musk Mallow (photo 6), also seen for the first time this year.

The species list has been updated using the data from the 13 July 2010 visit.

Notable finds from this exped.

1. Red Catchfly (two stars in McClintock and Fitter) - there was quite a lot of this. I can't think why we didn't see it before, but then Scarlet Pimpernel had increased markedly from last year when only one plant was seen.

2. Musk Mallow – this seems to be spreading in the Carse (see the posts on Glencarse Quarry)

3. Scarlet Pimpernel was almost abundant

4. Fiddleneck – an unusual find but could indicate further invasion by alien species

Glencarse Quarry update 13 July 2010

(PLEASE USE THE LINK ON THIS PAGE TO THE PICASA PHOTO ALBUM FOR GLENCARSE QUARRY UPDATE JULY 2010)

Photo 1 shows the entrance to the wood. Meadowsweet is common here but amongst it was Monkshood (photo 2) presumably a garden throw-out. Gooseberry was found amongst the shrubs lining the road and Lesser Stitchwort in the rough turf by the entrance to the wood. Further in Himalayan Balsam has taken hold but it did not look as vigorous as last year. Nettles are in abundance too. Beneath the quarry face the land is very marshy. There are lots of Northern Marsh Orchid here but most have been eaten back by deer. Wood False Brome grass is abundant. Male fern is very abundant and Lady Fern was also found.

Down on the lower scree level the land is still marshy in parts. In the marshy area there is an abundance of rushes such as Soft Rush (photo 3), Wood Clubrush which formed an impressive thicket (see photos 4 and 5) and reed-like grasses (Reed and Reed Canary Grass (photo 6). Commonly found were Hairy Sedge (photo 9) and Common Sedge (photo 10). Also here Greater Burnet Saxifrage, pink and white versions (photos 9, 10 and 11), and Common Horsetail grew in abundance. There is a drier area with a mound of earth on it supporting Brambles and a good display of Musk Mallow (photo 12). The mallow was seen last year but the Aquilegia seen then had not appeared this year. Marsh Thistle (photo 13) was frequent. The rough turf was made up of Sweet Vernal Grass, other unidentified grasses, Tormentil (photo 14), Bird’s Foot Trefoil, St John’s Wort, Wild Strawberry, Common Catsear and Self Heal. Leopardsbane and Butterbur dominate large areas but both had finished flowering at the time of this update.

Interesting features of today’s exped.

1. Finding Monkshood and Musk Mallow - very showy.

2. Club Woodrush – this is a really in-your-face plant and has two stars in McLintock and Fitter.

3. Finding a Gooseberry bush full of gooseberries which I will harvest this week.

4. Bit annoyed to find the orchids were deer-damaged. Will check back later to see if they have recovered.

5. Disappointed to see the Aquilegia has not re-appeared. The Meadow Saxifrage was not seen either. Possibly choked out by Himalayan Balsam.

Reference:

McClintock, D. & Fitter, R.S.R., 1967. Pocket guide to wild flowers, Collins, London.

Grass identificaton

Grasses can be difficult to identify because they look similar at first glance. You can use a binary key but I can never get them to work. I think that's because the key criteria can refer to different stages and habits of growth. You might be studying one criterion which refers to the flower and at a later step be referred to the basal leaf characteristics or the means of perennation - and you forgot to collect a leaf from the bottom of two foot-deep grassland or take a spade to check on whether your grass was stoloniferous or rhizomatous.

Some grasses are easy and don't need a key. Cocksfoot is very distinctive, as is Ryegrass. Yorkshire Fog is only slightly less so. Brome-like grasses such as true bromes and false bromes are distinctive and you would be quicker studying the few pages describing these two groups in your reference text (e.g. Hubbard, 1968 and later) than flogging through a key.

The difficult ones are the small grasses which grow together and have pyramidal infloresences formed by clusters of raceme branches with wider branches at the base and shorter ones at the top. When the infloresences fully open out you get a 'fog' of spikelets. The main groups of small 'pyramidal fog' grasses are Meadowgrasses, Bents, Fescues and Wavy Hair Grass (Deschampsia flexuosa).

Key characteristics for distinguishing between small 'pyramidal fog' grasses.

In the first paragraph under each group below I describe how you can identify the group (genus) and in the other paragraphs how you can differentiate between the commonest types.

Meadowgrasses (Poa)

These have 2 to 5 flowers per spikelet (so the spikelets are pretty small but not tiny as are those of the Bents which have one flower per spikelet)

They do not have awns.

They often have boat-shaped tips to the leaf blades (but not always and the tips often get damaged anyway - so not reliable).

The two Poas which are most difficult to differentiate are Smooth Meadowgrass (P. pratensis), often described as 'more or less smooth'; in other words it could be rough! and Rough Meadowgrass (P. trivialis), often described as ' more or less rough; in other words it could be smooth! Forget the smoothness and roughness, look at the ligule. If it's difficult to see that it has a ligule at all it is P. pratensis. If the ligule is long it is P. trivialis. The ligule (the membranous structure which clasps the culm at the top of the leaf sheath and indicates where the leaf blade starts) is very resilient. Even if the leaf has died you can still usually see the ligule by gently pulling the blade away from the culm.

Bents (Agrostis)

These are the only common grasses which have one flower per spikelet.

To differentiate between Bents use the following guide:

Common Bent (A. tenuis) has no awns and a short ligule.

Brown Bent (A. canina) has awns and a long ligule.

Creeping Bent (A. stolonifera) has no awns and a long ligule.

Black Bent (A. gigantea) also has no awns and a long ligule but is big (up to 120cm tall) and much less common than A. stolonifera.

Fescues (Festuca)

These have quite large, usually flattened spikelets which have at least three and up to fourteen flowers. Because they have relatively large spikelets they are less 'foggy' and more chunky than the other groups described.

Sheep's Fescue (F. ovina) and Red Fescue (F. rubra) are not easy to distinguish between. Both have awns and very short ligules. F.rubra is larger than ovina. The leaf sheath is entire in rubra but split in ovina. F.ovina grows on moorland whereas rubra grows anywhere.

Meadow Fescue (F. pratensis) is larger than rubra and ovina and awnless.

Wavy Hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa)

This has awns and two flowers per spikelet.

The other common Deschampsia is D. caespitosa (Tufted Hair Grass) but it is a very large plant and not easily confused with D. flexuosa.

Reference

Hubbard, C.E., 1968. Grasses. Penguin, Middlesex.

Pepperknowes east felled wood update 21 June 2010

The site can be seen as a purple hill (photos 1, 2, 3) as predicted from the carpet of Foxglove seedlings seen last year. There are rare white plants (photo 4), indicating a recessive character. Beside the foxgloves there are several locally abundant/dominant species, namely Bracken (photo 5), Dog's Mercury, Nettles and Sycamore regrowths. It is pleasing to see Scarlet Pimpernel continuing to thrive on the margins of the fields adjacent to the felled wood. So apart from the Foxgloves there are no obvious species establishing from the seed bank on this site. Next year may be more interesting as competitors to the Foxgloves may arise. There may be some evidence of this towards the tail-end of this growing season. At least we have established a baseline against which new species can be identified.

The update to the species list is in the linked Picasa album.

Update on Pitroddie Den blog

Pitroddie Den is on Old Red Sandstone and basalt. The sandstone is in the Devonian Arbubuthnot-Garvock Group.

Reference: British Geological Survey One Geology web-site (http://portal.onegeology.org/)

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