A bit late I know... but Anne and I would like to wish all our readers and watchers a very happy new year. Just to start off 2013 here is something entirely inappropriate and out of season. Neither Muckle Skerry or Red Poppies will feature in the Orkney Book of Wildflowers..... and, while we wait for the first Snowdrops and Lesser Celandines, those are four of the best reasons to include this fine summery picture.

 

Two new habitats

A couple of the best Christmas presents you could wish for - two more of Anne's plates - and as indicated both relating to habitats.

 

The upper plate represents the title plate for 'arable fields, waysides and disturbed ground'. As I mention in the text for the book this chapter has developed into something of ‘catch all’ section; within it are a variety of habitats, none of them natural, all of them manmade. Of course within this broad category there may be a high degree of overlap. This being the case, some of the wildflowers that are described and illustrated in this chapter are widespread and quite ubiquitous in their distribution - Daisy and Dandelion immediately spring to mind; both species may be found in almost any location.

 

Anne's plate is set on Flotta looking southwest over Kirk Bay with Switha on the left and South Walls on the right. The field is full of charlock while in the foreground from left to right are Hogweed, Purple ramping-fumitory, Ox-eye daisy, Ribwort plantain, Corn spurrey, Prickly sowthistle and Spear thistle. A Wren Troglodytes troglodytes, momentarily takes advantage of the Hogweed's height, in its constant search for insects.

The lower plate is the keystone plate for 'the peat hill – heath and blanket bog'. The draft introduction to this chapter is as follows:

'Of the ten habitats included in this volume, ‘the peat hill’ covers more of Orkney than any other and it can be found from near the coast to the summits of some of the county’s highest hills. Although peat is far less abundant on some of the north islands such as Sanday and Stronsay and non-existent on North Ronaldsay most of the other islands and parishes still have substantial areas of the peat hill; islands such as Eday, Hoy and Rousay are ‘peat’ islands and parishes such as Birsay, Firth and Orphir are similarly well-endowed. Indeed some of the best peat hills are nationally and internationally important designated sites most notably the Orphir and Stenness Hills, Keelylang Hill and Swartaback Burn, the West Mainland Moorlands and of course, Hoy.'

 

Anne's plate depicts the Rousay peat hill. We are at Catagreen on the northern ridge west of Kierfea and Whirliegar, overlooking the Cuppers of Vacquoy (the hill to the right).To the left is the Loch of Wasbister and Saviskaill while in the far distance and to the right is the sinuous coastline of Westray defined by Noup Head and Fitty Hill. The plate depicts the two main charactistics of the hill - the dry heath on the left and the wetter/boggy heath on the right. The plants of the drier heath include Ling and Bell heather - in the Scottish Borders known as 'He' heather and 'She' heather. The wetter/boggy heath is illustrated with Hare's-tail cottongrass, Butterwort, Sphagnum and Bog Asphodel.

 

 



 

 

Still surprising and it's December

2nd December - a sunny chilly day with a light breeze from the north. An ideal day to wander the cliffs of South Ronaldsay and take in the spectacle of Orkney's Grey Seal pupping season. And there was plenty of action. We witnessed suckling pups and wallowing pups, moulting pups and mewing pups. Some adults were relaxed, some were anything but and there were moments of high action involving possessive and territorial males intent on maintaining their gene pool. Doting mothers weren’t afraid to bare their teeth as they protected their offspring.

Our walk which took in both the east and west sides of South Ronaldsay also gave us the opportunity to see which of the county's plants were still in flower. We didn't have our noses to the ground most of the time and no doubt we missed a few, but there were a few surprises none more so than on the southwest facing cliffs south of Sandwick.

I make no apologies for including another picture of Sheep's-bit - there it was looking slightly less glamorous than a month ago, but very definitely still in flower.

While we were watching the Scarfies and Fulmars on the cliffs, the telescope also picked out the brown and dead flower-heads of Thrift, but in among them and looking quite vibrant were heads that were as pink as in the summer.

The 'pinks' are there if you peer hard enough!

but nothing like this - taken at the Shapinsay slip 'at the proper time of year'

We also saw Wild Angelica at Windwick, Common Catsear all over the coastal heath, Ragwort and Devil's-bit Scabious at Olad Brae, Meadow Buttercup in many places and Bell Heather at Halcro Head.

Sheep's-bit - a November surprise

I couldn't believe my eyes in South Ronaldsay today......well it is 10th November - Sheep's-bit in flower. It's a rare plant in Orkney and by all accounts occurs solely on South Ronaldsay, Eday and North Ronaldsay. According to Elaine Bullard's 'Wildflowers in Orkney' it is restricted to 'sea banks on red sandstones only'. Its rarity within the county means that it won't feature in 'The Book'!!!!!

Sometimes it is called Sheep's-bit Scabious but it does not belong to the scabious family, it is one of the bellflowers.

Ruithy Girs - Corn Spurrey

 

And here is Orkney's other 'spurrey' - 'Ruithy Girs'; arguably it has always been far better known than the two saltmarsh spurreys due to its historical importance as a famine crop. However it is nowhere as abundant as it formerly was; it may be found in arable crops or more likely in set-aside. In bygone days it was harvested and the Orkney landscape would have featured extensive areas of the crop. I came upon such a field on Wyre in 2010. And here's the field southwest of Cubbie Roo's castle.

 

 

 



 

The draft text for this vanishing plant reads something like this:

 

Corn Spurrey (Spergula arvensis)   Campion family       Ruithy Girs

Height to 15cm; flowers July to September. Widespread and scarce in Orkney (22/28); not easy to find.

Often where it does occur, it grows in great abundance and it is not uncommon to see whole arable fields covered. It is an annual that can flourish in open and recently disturbed ground such as ploughed fields especially where the soils are light. In agricultural circles, a profusion of Corn Spurrey indicated the need to apply fertiliser. Despite its generally fragile appearance it is a plant with a robust and important history. There is evidence of its use as human food during Roman times and there is also speculation that in Orkney it may have been a key food source during the neolithic period. We know for a fact that Corn Spurrey has been grown as a fodder crop in Britain for centuries and in times of poor crop yields and shortages, its seeds were mixed with the crop grain and ground for flour. When not feeding humans it was more usually given as feed to hens.

The leaves appear dusty and are thin, blunt and furrowed below. They are thread-like and arranged in conspicuous whorls. Brittle stems support tiny, white, five-petalled flower-heads which are often turned down almost bestowing a shyness to this delicate and now declining plant.

Orkney's Sea-spurreys

Just before the end of September I found Lesser Sea-spurrey in flower at the northern end of Kirkwall's Peedie Sea. I've spent a fair bit of time looking for examples of Lesser Sea-spurrey at many locations in the county and invariably it's the Greater Sea-spurrey that I bump into. Elaine Bullard's 'Wildflowers in Orkney' describes Lesser Sea-spurrey as occasional and local, while Greater Sea-spurrey is deemed to be frequent and local - I think  can agree with that. Elaine indicates that Lesser has been recorded in 18 islandised squares and Greater in 23 islandised squares.

Note the differences in petal colour and how the petals are bigger than the sepals for Greater and smaller for Lesser.

Lesser Sea-spurrey

 

 

Greater Sea-spurrey

 

 

Maybe I was a little presumptious..



Following a visit to saltmarsh in early September I'd pretty much convinced myself that we were in the thick of autumn; thankfully it  was refreshing to see that I'd been a little 'too soon' in my thinking. I took a walk into the nether regions of Holm last Saturday and found plenty of wetland plants still in flower and providing food for late summer bees. This peaty wetland was still full of Marsh Ragwort, Marsh Willowherb, Marsh Thistle, Lesser Spearwort and most surprisingly Ragged Robin. That'll teach me to be too presumptious - I'm off to find more late bloomers....watch this space

 

 

Ragged Robin

Marsh Ragwort

Marsh Thistle with Carder bee

and again

Marsh Willowherb

Lesser Spearwort