Sow-thistles

  At this time of year, there are quite a few yellow dandelion-like flowers along the road verges and in the grass.  They are not always easy to identify.  One easy one that you can spot from the car is Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis).  It is tall - up to 5 feet - and can be seen growing alongside the A9 near the kerbs.

Perennial Sow-thistles growing in a road verge

It has hairs sticking out from the stalk and under the flowers:

The hairs are a bit sticky as each one has a drop of liquid at the end. They are known as glandular hairs.

Glandular hairs on Perennial Sow-thistle

A few years ago I had only seen these plants by the Highland Wildlife Park and near Laggan.  With the building of the new A9 near the Park, the plants have now spread along the A9 and can also be seen in the verge by Pitmain Farm outside Kingussie.

Seed head

Their spread will have been though the fluffy wind blown seeds being carried along by the air disturbance from cars passing and seem to then grow quite well in the gravel drains alongside the kerbs.

There are two other Sow-thistles that are very common as they grow at the edges of paths and on waste ground. They both have smaller flowers that are a more lemony shade of yellow rather than the large golden flowers of the Perennial Sow-thistle.

This one is Smooth Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and is growing at the side of the path that goes from Newtonmore Main Street to Church Terrace.

Smooth Sow-thistle

Pointed leaf end of Smooth Sow-thistle

The leaves are quite thin and soft and not too prickly.

Note the pointed ends of the leaves as that helps distinguish it from Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper).  

 Prickly Sow-thistle is more common - lots of it grows alongside Newtonmore Primary School wall.

Prickly Sow-thistle

Prickly Sow-thistle has shinier, glossy and very prickly leaves. Also, the ends of the leaves near the stem are rounded.

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

When I lived in New Zealand, Smooth Sow-thistle was known as puha and was eaten. Apparently Captain Cook used this vegetable, boiled up to cure scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) affecting his crew.You can read more about it  here. I haven't tried it myself, but it can be cooked like spinach.

Links

The Herb Federation of New Zealand: puha

Around Dalwhinnie

 During the last sunny spell of weather, I went walking on the tracks near Dalwhinnie. Some of the tracks were put in for access for the new pylons and are not particularly walker friendly as they have locked gates.  Probably because there are still a lot of abandoned concrete structures - which now have tree saplings growing through them. I was surprised to find Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea) on a track edge.

Common Centaury

  I have never found this in Badenoch before.  It is not common up here, in spite of its name. There is some growing at Ardesier in the old fabrication yard, and it is likely that the seeds were brought to the Dalwhinnie track in tyres or imported fill.  It will be interesting to see how long it persists.

Another uncommon find was on the Allt an t-Sluic  track just North of Dalwhinnie. Just one flower. Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris).

Grass-of-Parnassus

It is growing through a small Scots Pine seedling and was near a man-made lochan.  If you see palustris or palustre in a plant name, it indicates that it grows in damp areas as palustris is the Latin for marsh. The rest of the name is from Mount Parnassus in Greece. It was recorded as growing on a mountain in ancient Greece, but isn't a grass.  The last time it was recorded locally was 1981 in Coire Chais in the Drumochter Hills.  If you spot any on your hill walks, I would love to see a photo and a grid reference (6 figures if possible).

Late Summer Blues

Some flowers are happy to bloom all season, but many have their own particular time.  Just now, the orchids are finished and Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) is making a sea of blue amongst the grasses.

Devil's-bit Scabious

I looked up how it got its name, and according to Wikipedia,  scabious plants were used to treat scabies and other itchy complaints, and the devil bit off the roots in anger.

Two other blue flowers are out at the moment.  they are not as numerous but make up for this with their delicate beauty.  The Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) is a bell-shaped nodding flower which grows in many places locally.

Harebell

Harebell

The other beauty is Field Gentian (Gentianella campestris) which is much fussier.  There are lots of them this year, near the Spey.  They are scarce further South, in England.

Field Gentian amongst Eyebright

Field Gentian showing sepals

To check that it is Field Gentian, you look at the sepals (the green "leaves" at the base of and surrounding the flower.It has two big overlapping sepals on the outside and two smaller ones inside them. You can see the arrangement on the topmost flower in the photo.

Yellow Flowers round Loch imrich

The banks of Loch Imrich are a sea of yellow at the moment.  Most of the plants are Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) and there is so much of it that you might think it is a very common find.  It is very common further south but there are relatively few records of it growing in the Highlands.

Yellow Loosestrife

Map showing distributions of Yellow Loosestrife

The dark areas on the map show where Yellow Loosestrife has been seen and recorded.  (The map is from a database of plant records that is maintained by the BSBI , the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.)

The white areas show where there are no records - this could be because it does not grow there or nobody has bothered to record it!

A very similar looking plant is also flowering around the Loch.  There is less of it and it came into flower a bit earlier.

Dotted Loosestrife

The flowers are a bit bigger and grow up and down the stem, rather than in a pyramid at the top of the stem. It is called Dotted Loosestrife, (Lysimachia punctata) though I can find no dots on it!  It is often a garden escape and grows in plenty of places around Newtonmore.

The third yellow flower is an iris and has the simple common name of Yellow Iris and the not so simple scientific name of Iris pseudocorus.  It flowered earlier in the year and there are just one or two flowers still open now.

Yellow Iris

Up Glen Banchor

A walk up Glen Banchor will show you an interesting collection of flowers at the moment.  As you go over the first cattle grid, before the car parking lay-by, there is a clump of Mountain Everlasting (Antennaria dioica).  It has white flowers in this photo, but it also has a form with pink flowers.

Mountain Everlasting with some Bell Heather in the foreground and Alpine Bistort behind.

Pink Mountain Everlasting

White Mountain Everlasting

The dioica part of the name means that it  has separate male and female plants. It is unusual to find it up the Glen, and the main population is down by the Spey in the shingly areas. It likes dry areas with good drainage.

Further up the Glen, by the turnoff to the Calder footpath, stop and look at the wet area by the stream.  Wet areas are always worth a second look as interesting flowers grow there.  At the moment there are two kinds of orchids in this patch.  Heath Spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata) and Heath Fragrant-orchids (Gymnadenia borealis). 

Heath Spotted-orchids (pale pink) and Heath Fragrant-orchids (darker pink)

Heath Spotted-orchid in front and Heath Fragrant-orchid behind

There are also some plants that will only grow in wet areas, and they are all flowering at the moment.  

Butterwort showing the basal rosette of leaves

Butterwort seed

Butterwort flower

A tiny Sundew about to flower - you can see a Butterwort behind, and some Sphagnum moss

Sundew flower

Both these plants, Butterwort( (Pinguicula vulgaris) and Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) catch insects on their leaves and then digest them to supplement their diet.

The Sundew is very small and you have to get down onto the ground to see it. Because they are flowering just now, it makes them easier to find.

Sundew

Sundew leaves

The Butterwort is much easier to spot as the pale green of the leaves stands out.

Butterwort plants

Nipplewort and Wall Letttuce

You would think the names were made up but they are the common names for Lapsana communis, Nipplewort,  and Mycelis muralis, Wall Lettuce.  I have been asked about both plants recently as they are flowering at the moment.  They both have quite spindly tall stems and then a branched head of small yellow flowers.

Nipplewort is growing around Loch Imrich and on road verges. Because it is quite a thin spread out plant, it is hard to get a decent picture as it does not stand out from the background! The leaves are quite simple and rounded.

Nipplewort

Nipplewort flowers

Nipplewort leaves

Wall Lettuce has been growing along the Main Street near Newtonmore Village Hall and several plants have appeared in my garden. The flowers are similar but the leaves are more complexly shaped and it often has a purplish tinge.

Wall Lettuce leaves

Wall lettuce

Wall lettuce flowers

I was asked whether Wall Lettuce is edible.  A good site for checking what uses a plant has is Plants for a Future.    Here's the verdict for Wall Lettuce edibility Just 2 out of 5 - so maybe don't bother!

A plethora of orchids

Or should that be a Platanthera of orchids?  (Sorry, couldn't resist a botanical joke as Greater Butterfly-orchids are  Platanthera chlorantha.) The area around Newtonmore Golf Course is full of orchids which are flowering just now.  Not just the usual "orchid field," Eilean  na Cluanaich, but each area of rough by the fairways also has a good selection.

 I counted over 60 Small-white Orchids (Pseudorchis albida) at one spot where I had only seen single figures before. 

Small-white orchid and Red Clover

Fragrant-orchid and Small-white Orchid

The most plentiful orchid was the Greater Butterfly Orchid.

Greater Butterfly-orchid

A small portion of the orchid field with Greater Butterfly-orchids in abundance

There are also some Northern Marsh-orchids (Dactylorhiza purpurella).

Northern Marsh-orchid

Walking a field next to the Golf Course, I found some Heath Spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata).

Heath Spotted-orchid

We are very lucky to have the Golf Course, even if you don't play golf, as the management of the ground has resulted in such a rich variety of flowers.  This short video shows the difference between the Golf Course side where sheep graze only in the winter  and the field on the other side of the fence, where sheep graze all year round,