The chosen habitats of Orkney - from shore to hill top

I mentioned earlier that the The Orkney Book of Wildflowers begins its journey by the sea and finishes it on the high hills of Hoy. The habitats chosen are fairly broad in their range and we've deliberately tried to cut out the scientific jargon that can be a little off putting if you just want to identify your flower finds.
However, unfortunately not all wildflowers stick rigidly to their habitat type - many of the wildflowers may be found in more than one of the habitats. A good example of that is Thrift which essentially you can find anywhere where there is a liberal dousing of salt spray. We could have included it in the Saltmarsh section or the Sea Cliff section - we plumped for the latter.

Here is our list of habitats and their order in the book - there may be changes before Christmas 2013!

1. Sand and shingle shores – the soft coast                                          
2. Salt marshes – the horizontal cliff                                                      
3. Links and dry grasslands                                                                   
4. Lochs, burns, freshwater marshes and wet grasslands                     
5. Sea cliffs, coastal grasslands and coastal heaths - the vertical saltmarsh
6. Arable fields, waysides and disturbed ground
7. Tame woods                                                                                      
8. Wild woods and dales                                                                        
9. The Hill – the heather hill and the boggy hill                                      
10. Tundra – the high stony tops              

Anne has completed the habitat plates for 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8 and they will eventually find their way on to these pages.