White stuff

Winter definitely feels as if it has arrived with sub-zero temperatures and snow for the last week. It looks so beautiful that I can almost forgive the weather for freezing our down pipes...

Newtonmore Golf Course

Birch tree with catkins waiting for the spring

Looking back a few months, I was walking near Craggan and I was surprised to find  some tiny white seeds:

Most seeds I find or sow in the garden are brown. These ones were so white that they stood out against the brown remains of the plant. They are also very small, less than a millimetre long.

Seeds against a 1mm scale

I had visited the site before and knew what grew there, so I was able to match the brown withered stems to a flower called Red Bartsia (Odontites vernus). It is not very common here - I've only seen it in 2 places around Newtonmore.

Red Bartsia

It has attractive purply-pink flowers with yellow stamens and the whole plant, leaves and flowers, is hairy.

It is indeterminate - which means that it keeps on growing more flowers at the top of the spike, like a foxglove. There were many plants growing on a grassy track to a farm gate.  It is an annual, so it will need those seeds to grow again next year.

The third white thing is a bit of a mystery. It was white fluff growing on a beech tree trunk near Monarch Apartments. 

Having passed it before, I thought I ought to go back and check if it was a lichen.  The fluff I am talking about  goes all up the right hand side of the tree.  It doesn't have a particular outline or shape (unlike the round white shapes which will be lichens). Here's a closer look:

I don't think it is a lichen. As coincidence would have it, I had been looking at the website of the Highland Biological Recording Group (HRBG) and found that they are encouraging people to look for something called Beech Scale  which is a tiny insect.  The info sheet says: 

"In heavy infestations it shows as fluffy white patches up to 1cm across on the trunks of old Beech. The ‘fluff’ is a waxy substance produced to protect the eggs and nymphs."

Maybe this is what I have found, but I will have to contact someone more knowledgeable to check it out. As I have joined the HRBG, I might be able to find someone!