Yellow Flowers round Loch imrich

The banks of Loch Imrich are a sea of yellow at the moment.  Most of the plants are Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) and there is so much of it that you might think it is a very common find.  It is very common further south but there are relatively few records of it growing in the Highlands.

Yellow Loosestrife

Map showing distributions of Yellow Loosestrife

The dark areas on the map show where Yellow Loosestrife has been seen and recorded.  (The map is from a database of plant records that is maintained by the BSBI , the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.)

The white areas show where there are no records - this could be because it does not grow there or nobody has bothered to record it!

A very similar looking plant is also flowering around the Loch.  There is less of it and it came into flower a bit earlier.

Dotted Loosestrife

The flowers are a bit bigger and grow up and down the stem, rather than in a pyramid at the top of the stem. It is called Dotted Loosestrife, (Lysimachia punctata) though I can find no dots on it!  It is often a garden escape and grows in plenty of places around Newtonmore.

The third yellow flower is an iris and has the simple common name of Yellow Iris and the not so simple scientific name of Iris pseudocorus.  It flowered earlier in the year and there are just one or two flowers still open now.

Yellow Iris

Up Glen Banchor

A walk up Glen Banchor will show you an interesting collection of flowers at the moment.  As you go over the first cattle grid, before the car parking lay-by, there is a clump of Mountain Everlasting (Antennaria dioica).  It has white flowers in this photo, but it also has a form with pink flowers.

Mountain Everlasting with some Bell Heather in the foreground and Alpine Bistort behind.

Pink Mountain Everlasting

White Mountain Everlasting

The dioica part of the name means that it  has separate male and female plants. It is unusual to find it up the Glen, and the main population is down by the Spey in the shingly areas. It likes dry areas with good drainage.

Further up the Glen, by the turnoff to the Calder footpath, stop and look at the wet area by the stream.  Wet areas are always worth a second look as interesting flowers grow there.  At the moment there are two kinds of orchids in this patch.  Heath Spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata) and Heath Fragrant-orchids (Gymnadenia borealis). 

Heath Spotted-orchids (pale pink) and Heath Fragrant-orchids (darker pink)

Heath Spotted-orchid in front and Heath Fragrant-orchid behind

There are also some plants that will only grow in wet areas, and they are all flowering at the moment.  

Butterwort showing the basal rosette of leaves

Butterwort seed

Butterwort flower

A tiny Sundew about to flower - you can see a Butterwort behind, and some Sphagnum moss

Sundew flower

Both these plants, Butterwort( (Pinguicula vulgaris) and Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) catch insects on their leaves and then digest them to supplement their diet.

The Sundew is very small and you have to get down onto the ground to see it. Because they are flowering just now, it makes them easier to find.

Sundew

Sundew leaves

The Butterwort is much easier to spot as the pale green of the leaves stands out.

Butterwort plants

Nipplewort and Wall Letttuce

You would think the names were made up but they are the common names for Lapsana communis, Nipplewort,  and Mycelis muralis, Wall Lettuce.  I have been asked about both plants recently as they are flowering at the moment.  They both have quite spindly tall stems and then a branched head of small yellow flowers.

Nipplewort is growing around Loch Imrich and on road verges. Because it is quite a thin spread out plant, it is hard to get a decent picture as it does not stand out from the background! The leaves are quite simple and rounded.

Nipplewort

Nipplewort flowers

Nipplewort leaves

Wall Lettuce has been growing along the Main Street near Newtonmore Village Hall and several plants have appeared in my garden. The flowers are similar but the leaves are more complexly shaped and it often has a purplish tinge.

Wall Lettuce leaves

Wall lettuce

Wall lettuce flowers

I was asked whether Wall Lettuce is edible.  A good site for checking what uses a plant has is Plants for a Future.    Here's the verdict for Wall Lettuce edibility Just 2 out of 5 - so maybe don't bother!

A plethora of orchids

Or should that be a Platanthera of orchids?  (Sorry, couldn't resist a botanical joke as Greater Butterfly-orchids are  Platanthera chlorantha.) The area around Newtonmore Golf Course is full of orchids which are flowering just now.  Not just the usual "orchid field," Eilean  na Cluanaich, but each area of rough by the fairways also has a good selection.

 I counted over 60 Small-white Orchids (Pseudorchis albida) at one spot where I had only seen single figures before. 

Small-white orchid and Red Clover

Fragrant-orchid and Small-white Orchid

The most plentiful orchid was the Greater Butterfly Orchid.

Greater Butterfly-orchid

A small portion of the orchid field with Greater Butterfly-orchids in abundance

There are also some Northern Marsh-orchids (Dactylorhiza purpurella).

Northern Marsh-orchid

Walking a field next to the Golf Course, I found some Heath Spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata).

Heath Spotted-orchid

We are very lucky to have the Golf Course, even if you don't play golf, as the management of the ground has resulted in such a rich variety of flowers.  This short video shows the difference between the Golf Course side where sheep graze only in the winter  and the field on the other side of the fence, where sheep graze all year round,