Warm days, cold nights

 I have really been enjoying the recent sunny weather with clear blue skies, followed by a frost at night.  This year the plants seem quite slow to get going though the yellow ones are the first to appear.  celandines, as in the last post, and today while walking in Kingussie by the Gynack, I saw my first Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).

Coltsfoot

The scientific name comes from the Latin, "tussis", which means a cough and it is still used to treat coughs and respitatory problems.  Just because something grows wild does not make it a safe natural remedy.  There is an interesting website about the uses of plants at Plants for a Future.

The other yellow flower appearing is the dandelion.  I saw a strange example in Kingussie. Two (or three) flowers have fused together to produce this monster flower and wide stem.  This happens occasionally in many flowers and is called fasciation:

 Dandelions are very common everywhere and you might think that they weren't that interesting for botanists.  You would be wrong! There are hundreds of microspecies of dandelion which have their own scientific names and are subtly different from each other.  This has happened because most dandelions now do not need to be fertilised by another dandelion to produce seed, though maybe they did a very long time ago.  This means that every seed that a particular dandelion produces will be genetically identical to its parent and so any differences are perpetuated. You might have noticed that pulling the head off a dandelion does not stop the flower producing seed (clocking).Bees and other insects visit the flower for pollen and nectar though.

Outside Kingussie High School, I noticed some bright orange patches on a concrete fence post. I was interested in the two near the bottom of the photo.

`These were lichens so I took a few photos.  I use a clip on macro lens on my phone to get a closer photo. The yellow one at the top is Xanthoria parietina and is a very common leafy lichen on trees and walls. I was more interested in the bright orange ones near the bottom.

This is a crustose lichen and probably a Caloplaca, perhaps Caloplaca saxicola.  The round circular shapes in the middle produce spores, and the finger-like structures at the edge are the lichen growing outwards. It is stuck fast to the cement and can't be pulled off without chipping at it with a chisel. Some lichens prefer to grow on acidic rocks like granite.  Most of the local rocks and boulders here are acidic.  Other lichens like a more alkaline  surface like cement and concrete.  This Caloplaca likes to grow on basic (non-acidic) stone so I can only find it on cement and mortared walls.  If we lived in an area with limestone or chalk it would grow on local rocks.

Here is are more similar lichens growing on a breezeblock wall in Newtonmore:

Caloplaca saxicola

Caloplaca decipiens

More Signs of Spring

Today I saw my first Celandines in flower. 

Lesser Celandine

Their scientific name is Ranunculus ficaria.  The buttercup also belongs to the Ranunculus family and you can see the similarity in the shiny yellow petals. Remember holding a buttercup under a friend's chin to see if they liked butter?  Which they would if the sun was shining and the yellow reflected off the petals.

The Gorse, Ulex europaeus, is another early bloomer, but the petals are a more lemony colour and are protected by fearsome spikes. You certainly would not want to hold that near your chin!

Gorse

I was walking by the River Calder when I saw some shiny green beetles on a large rock.   They were quite small, maybe 5mm,  and they don't look like much until you get a close up.  Then the colours were stunning in the sun.

They obligingly stayed put while I photographed them with the macro lens attachment on my phone, and they are fantastic - the Newtonmore scarab!

Although it was a beautifully sunny day, there were some shady areas that were just as pleasant, especially with the sound of water running over the rocks of this small burn that crosses the track.

If you have been following my posts during the winter, you will be wondering why there is no mention of lichens yet.  Continuing with the bright yellow theme, here is the brightest yellow lichen around,  Chrysothrix candelaris. Chrysothrix means "Golden Hair. 

 Usually the yellow lichens have a chemical sunscreen called parietin that gives them their colour, but this lichen grows on the shady side of the tree and  the colour is thought to be from chemicals that protect it from being eaten. Parietin has been investigated as a potential anti-cancer drug.  You can read more about it here.