A bit more from the A9

In the last post, I went to look for what was flowering along the A9, but much to my surprise I found that there were some unexpected lichens as well. Because the new part of the A9 near the Wildlife park has been built through woodland, there are still some older trees.  There was a group of old aspens that I looked at.

Aspens by the A9

The ecological survey before building the road must have checked these trees as two of them had a metal disc with a number attached - presumably to protect them from workmen with a chainsaw!

There were woodland plants like Wood Anemone and Common Dog Violet in the grass, but I wanted to see what lichens there were.  On a fallen log was a lichen I had never seen before.

It looked like a series of dark brown lobes (leaves) with some lighter brown structures that look a bit like fingernails  (they are apothecia - the spore producing parts).  Looking more closely, there were lots of little peglike growths as well (they are called isidia and are another way a lichen can spread).

"Fingernails" (out of focus) and the tiny pegs (isidia)

The lichen turned out to be Peltigera praetextata and it was growing on the trunk of a live tree as well.

I had never seen that Peltigera before, but there is a common one that grows in lawns, or on grassy or mossy surfaces:

Peltigera membranacea

It will prefer lawns that don't receive too much care in the form of weedkillers and fertilisers.  A benefit of a bit of neglect! As it is No Mow May again,  I am hoping some wildflowers will appear in my lawn soon. The lawn a few doors down from me has a nice show of Slender Speedwell (Veronica filiformis.)

For more on Speedwells check this post. 

The common name for the Peltigera group is Dog lichen. They have little projections underneath that look like dog's teeth so in the past they thought it would cure rabies.

A9-ning

 North of Kingussie is a stretch of the "new" A9 where it has been upgraded into dual carriageway (much to the relief of locals as now you can overtake safely). There is also a cycle path alongside the North bound carriageway so you can safely have a look at the verge and slopes to see what is growing there. I feel some affinity to the A9 as in 1976 we moved up here to work on the "new" A9 between Calvine and Drumochter.

Along with husband and dog, I parked by the Wildlife Park access road and headed North along the bike path. I was on a mission to find Danish Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia danica) as there had been a request to check how far it had spread along the A9.  This is normally a coastal plant as it does not mind salt, but the same conditions arise alongside roads that are salted so it has spread along the A9 from Inverness. The red squares on the map show the places that it has been noticed and recorded  - and you can see that there is a big gap along the A9 from North of Aviemore to Newtonmore. It is very likely that it is growing in many more places, but no one has recorded it. 

Map showing places where Danish Scurvy Grass has been recorded (from BSBI)

I have found it in Newtonmore, and it is flowering at the moment alongside the wall of the Balavil Hotel. There are quite a few small white flowered plants around just now, but the ivy shaped leaf helps to distinguish it from the others.

Danish Scurvy Grass

leaf and buds

In fact , I did not find any on the stretch that I walked, but if you see any, let me know!

 Although I did not find what I went for, I did collect two dandelions to ID, both of which turned out to be new records for East-Inverness-shire, and one (Taraxacum exsertum) was the furthest north record in the UK.

Taraxacum vastisectum

Taraxacum exsertum (it has very pointed ends to the leaves)

Hang on a minute, I hear you say, aren't they both the same? Well, no, but the differences in dandelion microspecies are quite hard to spot which is why every one is verified by a referee who will confirm or correct your ID from a series of photos of the different features. I managed to ID the T. exsertum correctly but had to be put right for the T. vastisectum.

There were a few more interesting things to report from the A9 excursion, but I will save them for another post.