Up near Geal Charn

 I benefit from having botanical spies around the area... Geoff who runs Balsporran Cottages B&B just by the A9, south of Dalwhinnie, got in touch to say one of his guests had spotted Lesser Twayblade on one of the tracks below Geal Charn.  It was a nice day, so we packed a picnic and set off to see what we could find.  There is a public car park just off the A9 (which is worth a visit on its own account as it is the site of lots of orchids, including an hybrid one.) Here is a photo from 2 years ago as the orchids were not out when I went last week.

To get to the walking tracks, you have to walk through the grounds of Balsporran Cottage and across the railway.  On the right of the track are some tumbledown cottages which have a selection of lichens, most of which I couldn't name but there were two kinds of Umbilicaria, which like upland areas.

Umbilicaria polyphylla in the centre and the yellow patches of map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum)

Umbilicaria cylindrica  with the frilly edges

Walking along the track through mainly Heather and Cowberry, I found just one patch of Lesser Twayblade (Neottia cordata) with 5 flowering spikes.

Lesser Twayblade

These are orchids but not at all like their flashy relatives.  Dull in colour and only about 10cm high, they grow nestled in the heather. My hand in the photo gives you a better idea of the scale.

A close up photo of the flower shows why it is called twayblade:

Another nice find was some Stags-horn Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) with its two fingered fruiting bodies. To read more about Clubmosses see this post.

Two nice finds

 During the recent warm spell, I have been walking on the Etteridge and Phones tracks, doing some botanical recording. (Phones and Etteridge are two Estates south of Newtonmore.)

 Most of what I found was fairly common but I was surprised to find this plant by the side of the Etteridge track:

Hemp-Agrimony

It is Hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), which I have never seen round here before. The nearest recorded plants are in Nairn and Pitlochry. It's always a buzz to find something new to the area! 

Hemp-agrimony flower

The leaves are similar to Hemp (Cannabis sativa) leaves, hence the name.

Hemp-agrimony leaves

The second day I walked in from the Phones end, and saw these strange yellow tuning-fork structures amongst the heather:

The next photo gives you an idea of the scale, and the green branching stalks are the same plant.

Fruiting Stag's-horn Clubmoss

It is a Clubmoss, Stag's-horn Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum).  It is similar to another Clubmoss, called Interrupted Clubmoss (Lycopodium annotinum) which I have seen near Wolftrax.

Interrupted Clubmoss

They both seem to grow in heathery places and are only easy to spot when there is a bare patch of ground. If you are not sure which one you have found, look carefully at the "leaves" which are scales along the stem. the Stag's-horn Clubmoss has white hairs at the end of each scale.

Stag's-horn scales with hairs

Interrupted Clubmoss - no hairs

Clubmosses are not mosses, but belong to a group of plants that produce spores.  Nowadays you find clubmosses in mountainous areas and they are all small but millions of years ago there were tree-like Clubmosses that grew to 45m!  You can read more about Clubmosses here.

I put a sample of the Stag's-horn Clubmoss under the microscope to take a picture of the cones (the yellow parts that produce the spores).  

Close-up of Stag's-horn Clubmoss cones

I left the sample under the microscope and had a look at it just now - and got a surprise! The cone scales have opened up and released a little pile of yellow spores.

Spores of Stag's-horn Clubmoss

The spores are called Lycopodium powder or Dragon's breath and can be bought on the internet.  They are used in science experiments and cosmetics as they have two opposite properties - they don't get wet, and the powder can burst into flames explosively when sprinkled over a flame. Hmmm- what to do with my little pile....