Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

The Skye Botany Group had such a good day at Loch Duagrich a couple of years ago, that we decided to go back armed with a bathyscope and a grapnel. The first throw of the grapnel produced a large quantity of Nitella translucens (Translucent Stonewort), a charophyte with very few records in the vice-county.  Maybe greater use of the grapnel would increase the known distribution quite a bit.

The other significant find was of this plant, which may be terrestrial Apium inundatum (Lesser Marshwort):

Apium inundatum?

It was there two years ago. I had intended to return earlier in the season in the hope of finding a flower or fruit,  but forgot about it. It is on gravel beside the loch but not actually in the water. Opinions welcome! There are two undated, unlocalised and generally doubtful records for Skye, and the only certain population in VC104 appears to have gone from Sanday, so this would be a really nice find.

We collected specimens of Subularia aquatica (Awlwort) for the University of Toulouse and the Elatine hexandra (Six-stamened Waterwort) was doing well.

In passing we recorded 102 vascular plants in the monad NG3939; apart from Nitella translucens and maybe Apium inundatum, only Carex leporina (Oval Sedge) was new to the tetrad.

Afterwards I collected the few remaining fruits on a stand of Sparganium erectum (Branched Bur-reed) near the Amar River for Mike Wilcox to have a look at, in order to determine the subspecies.

Following the discovery of Juncus ranarius (Frog Rush) as a roadside plant as well as a coastal plant on Skye by Ian Green and the Wildflower Society. I found it in two roadside places myself during my Roadside Mud expedition.

Andy Amphlett and Ian have been finding it elsewhere in the Highlands e.g. along the A9 and I am now wondering just how much of the J. bufonius agg. along our main roads (of which there is plenty) belongs to this species. At the end of the day it is not too surprising that this salt-tolerant plant is among those found on our roadsides.

There only seem to be two reliable differences – the distal end of the inner tepals and the seed surface.

Inner tepals: Juncus bufonius (LEFT) & J ranarius (RIGHT)       Photo M. Wilcox

Juncus bufonius agg. seeds – A = J foliosus, B = J. bufonius, C = J ranarius

From Cope, T.A. & Stace, C.A. 1978. The Juncus bufonius L. aggregate in western Europe. Watsonia 12, 113-128.

I have included J. foliosus as that too is found in our area (rarely) but in very wet marshy areas – and that is distinctive in other ways such as having wider leaves.

Thanks to Mike, Ian and Andy for getting me up to speed with this.

My contribution to the September issue of the Raasay Community Newsletter concerns Eelgrass and can be found via a link here.