I spent some of October down in West London, visiting family. It was shirtsleeve weather down there, but is much colder up here now and we have had a few frosts and clear blue skies. This morning was particularly lovely with the frost on the grasses on the golf course.
Whilst down south, I refound a plant that is very scarce in Scotland. I had found it in the same area in 2017 when visiting. It was growing in the road by the kerb, so I had no hesitation in picking a sample to try and ID. It looked like a cudweed, which are greyish fairly nondescript plants, and several varieties grow around Newtonmore. This one just looked different to the ones I was familiar with. Here are some pictures from 2017:
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| 2017 photos showing features for ID |
When I identified the plant in 2017 it turned out to be Jersey Cudweed (was Gnaphalium luteoalbum now Laphangium luteoalbum) and had "Schedule 8" next to its name. I'd never heard of Schedule 8 and had to look it up and was horrified to find that it was illegal to pick it! However, I think this is an example of legislation that is now out of date - although it was once confined to a small area of England, it is spreading. It likes a sandy habitat and when I have seen it , it has been growing in the sand between paviours in drives that have block paving. Presumably, wherever the sand was sourced from, it already had lots of seeds in it. I saw the plant this year, in a different spot and, yet again, it was in paving.
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| Jersey Cudweed in paving |
Distribution of Jersey Cudweed (from BSBI) showing mainly Southern distribution but spreading.
On this year's visit, I also found another unfamiliar plant. I am sorry there is only one photo but I was mainly keeping up with grandchildren so no time to linger - I just picked a bit to look at later!
It had a yellow flower and rather strange bumps on the leaves, and in the centre of each was a prickle. This turned out to be Bristly Ox-tongue which has the difficult to pronounce scientific name- Helminthotheca echioides.
This is another southern species that is spreading north
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| Distribution of Bristly Oxtongue |
