A Swarm of Orchids

 Last week - when the weather was a bit drier - I went for  walk up the track from Tromie bridge  to Killiehuntly, just for the walk with no plans of botanising.  But I can't help looking...

To my surprise I found 2 fields on either side of the track with plentiful orchids, in flower, which seems quite late for this year. Not only were they plentiful, they were big and sturdy and on taking a closer look, I couldn't quite place them in a single species.  Because they were puzzling, I went back a day or so later and took photos and measurements of some important features.

First of all, I took a photo against a clipboard marked in 1cm squares, to give an idea of the scale. You can see that the biggest one in the photo is about 30cm tall.

I also squeezed the stem to check whether it was hollow or solid - you don't need to pick or cut the plant, as it is easy to tell if it gives a bit. (Spotted-orchids have solid stems and Marsh-orchids have hollow ones.)

The leaves were wide and unspotted (unsurprisingly, Spotted-orchids have skinny spotty leaves).

So far this seems to fit Northern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) though it is much bigger and flowering later than I would expect.  So let's check the flowers.  The shape of the flowers is really important in distinguishing between orchid species, especially the front lip of the flower.

A diamond shaped petal

This plant has a diamond shaped front petal (called the labellum)  which is characteristic of Northern Marsh-orchid - but it is the wrong colour. I would have expected it to be a dark beetrooty purple, whereas this lighter pink is typical of the Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). Some of the flowers did have the petal shape of the Heath Spotted-orchid, with a little tooth in the centre:

A lobe (tooth) in the centre of the petal

but then it did not have the spotty leaves.

So I came to the conclusion that maybe it was a hybrid between the 2 species i.e. Dactylorhiza x formosa = dac. maculata x purpurella.  In order to check, I sent the details to the orchid referee Richard Bateman (the expert) at Kew and was delighted that he confirmed they were the hybrid. Richard is one of the many professional botanists who volunteer their time and expertise to check amateur observations.

I have never seen so many hybrids in one spot (there were well over 100). Although hybrids are known for their vigour, they are not always fertile.  It seems that this strain was and has produced many offspring in the same place (an orchid swarm). I was surprised that no-one had recorded orchids in this spot before, and I have sent off the records to go on the BSBI database.

Candy Striped spiders?

It is hard to believe that it is a month since my last blog post.  I have the slight excuse of going on holiday for a week and a week of intensive gardening beforehand trying to catch up with jobs that needed doing before I went away.

When I got back from my holiday I went for a walk to see if the orchids were still around and managed to find plenty on Newtonmore Golf Course and even some round Loch Imrich. The ones round Loch Imrich were Common Spotted Orchids (the leaves are spotted as well) and is uncommon locally as it prefers non-acid soils.

Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) 

On the Golf course, the orchids were interspersed with yellow Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum).

Lady's bedstraw with Fragrant Orchids at the front and a Greater Butterfly Orchid at the back.

Orchids - left to right -  Small-white, Fragrant and Greater Butterfly

Whilst I was away, my row of Chard had started to bolt and needed picking.  I know it as "Silver beet" which is the name I learnt for it when I lived in New Zealand.  I am not a great fan of it, but the packet of seed said it was beetroot so I was a bit surprised when it came up as chard!  Anyway, when I picked it I found 2 spiders amongst the foliage. One was quite striking as it had two red stripes on its abdomen. I put each one in a small container and tried to take a decent picture - not very successfully I'm afraid.  The bright red stripes don't look very vivid in the photo, though its reflection in the container wall looks very scary!

The second spider looked very different but turned out to be the same species.

I think they are both Candy striped spiders (Enoplognatha ovata) which comes in three colour forms.  The red striped one is called the redimita morph and the greenish one is called the lineata morph.  There is a third pattern which I have not seen yet which is all red on the back.  There is lots of information here.

I read that they produce blue egg sacs, and surprisingly I found one today on my blackcurrant bush. It really is an amazing colour.

These spiders like low growing vegetation and are quite likely to be in your garden, so keep yours eyes open and you might find one.

Update - found another one today on the blackcurrants so took a better photo in the sunshine.

Two newcomers to the garden

 An unfamiliar plant popped up in the garden, near the compost bins.

Yellow flowered mystery plant

It had double yellow flowers and big lobed leaves.

A bit of research named it as Greater Celandine, the double flowered version. (Chelidonium majus "Flore pleno") I've never seen it before, either in the wild or anyone's garden.  How it got there is a mystery.  It is not much like the usual Lesser Celandine  (Ficaria verna) which is in the Butttercup family whereas Greater Celandine is in the Poppy family. Other poppies have sap called latex and Greater celandine has latex too when you break a stem - but it is a bright orange! The picture doesn't really do it justice.

Orange latex of Greater Celandine

Lesser Celandine

The name Celandine comes from the Latin and Greek words for swallow as it was supposed to flower when the swallows arrived and die when they left. This would make sense for the Greater Celandine, but not for the Lesser celandine which blooms in early spring. You can see the root in the scientific name of Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus as  chelīdonius  is Latin for "relating to the swallow."

Another nice surprise was under a log.

It is a baby newt.  It is very small, probably about 4cm (1.5 inches)long, as you can see by the old sycamore helicopter wings near it.   I have never seen newts in our pond, but maybe they are there after all.  Like frogs, they start off as tadpoles and then leave the pond.  The etymology of newt is interesting as it was originally "an ewt" but now we say "a newt." Even longer ago it was known as an eft. In some words the "n" has moved the other way: "an apron" was originally " a napron"

Busy, Busy, Busy

It has been a while since my last post - not because nothing has been happening, rather the opposite.  At the beginning of May I spent a week in Fife with other Lichen enthusiasts, most of whom I knew from Zoom sessions but had never met in person.  I had a brilliant time as up until now I have been a solitary lichener  and really enjoyed going out on field trips with others.  We also had fantastic weather as shown in this photo taken at Earlsferry.

I also got to see some new (to me) lichens such as cornflake lichen, a brilliant golden yellow coastal species.

"Cornflake lichen" Xanthoria aureola

And a less impressive one known as "Fag ash lichen"

Fag Ash Lichen Porpidia tuberculosa

I also got a chance to play with microscopes:

 - and will soon have one of my own as I have ordered one.  In the meantime, a kind friend has loaned me their microscope and I am having fun slicing up lichens and looking at them. 

Driving back from Fife, there was a traffic queue on the A9 and I amused myself by spotting Danish Scurvy grass on the road verges!

With the warm weather, plenty of plants have started to flower. On Newtonmore Golf Course and up Geln Banchor, there is a tiny yellow flower that looks like a miniature version of gorsewith small pea type flowers and tiny spikes. Its name reflects that as it is called Petty Whin (Genista anglica).

It just manages to peep above the grass.  To get an idea of its scale, here it is next to a sprig of Broom.

While waiting for a friend, I also did a bit of botanising in Kingussie.  The field next to the Bowling Green had 3 kinds of Speedwell.

Left to right: Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Germander Speedwell, Slender Speedwell

Danish Scurvy grass (again), a fern and a lichen

 A large patch of Danish Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia danica) is flowering opposite the Balavil Hotel just now (1 May 2023). It is the biggest patch I have seen in Newtonmore Village.  There was a previous post about this plant here, but I couldn't resist mentioning it again. It is a coastal plant as it tolerates salt, but as the roads are salted in winter, it has found a niche  alongside the roads. Its flowers are white but the buds are an attractive shade of mauve.

Easy to find! Under the bench and to the right.

Last weekend, I went to the Spring Meeting of the Highland Biological Recording Group which was held in Spean Bridge.  There were some interesting talks, including one about Loch Arkaig Pine woods which we were to visit in the afternoon.  However, to get there, you have to cross the  Caledonian Canal at Gairlochy where there is a swing bridge.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there the bridge had broken down, with half the party on the other side and half still on the Spean Bridge side!  So that trip was abandoned and I made my way back home.  Not wanting to waste the drive, I did some lichen hunting on the way back.  First stop was by Pattack Falls. A well as lichens, there was a nice patch of a Polypody fern on a rock, with the sun shining through it. The sun showed up the little brown circles on the underside of the fern.  These are called sori and hold the spores that ferns use to reproduce.

Common Polypody

There was also a lichen on the same rock, that was unfamiliar to me. Round crusty patches, white at the edges and beige in the centre.

There are little circles in the centre which are fruiting bodies (apothecia) and close up they look like mini-volcanoes.

I did some testing - which involves adding a very small drop of two chemicals and seeing if there is any colour change. Bleach went red and Potassium hydroxide went yellow. This helps with ID.  I think this lichen is called Diploschistes scruposus. Unfortunately there's no easy name!

Leaves and catkins and Common Whitlow grass

 We have just had a week of stunning weather - clear blue skies and sunshine - and spring seems to be here at last.  The tadpoles are wriggling in my pond, our garden blackbird is gathering worms, the blue tits are investigating the nest boxes and I am gardening - sowing seeds and weeding. Only the larches have green leaves but it can't be long before all the trees green up.  If you want to get to know your tree leaves, there is a FREE poster available at https://microcosmic.shop/products/tree-leaves-poster-free-download

You download the pdf file for free to print yourself or you can buy a paper version from them.

Most of the willows just have catkins at the moment and I was shown this photo of some unfamiliar catkins near the Calder.

After a  bit of research, I think these are the female catkins of the Grey Sallow (Salix cinerea) which is a Willow.  Male catkins are the yellow fluffy ones. Willows are dioecious which means that plants are either male or female, not both, so the male and female catkins are on different plants. There are many varieties of willow (at least 23) so only some are on the poster above.  They also hybridise with each other so giving a  hybrid tree an exact name needs an expert - or at least someone with more experience than I have.  To make things even more complicated, some species have variants called sub species.  So best just to settle for Willow!

Now is a good time to see a small white flowering plants called Common Whitlow Grass which is one of the first plants to flower.  It is tiny but easy to spot.  If you are passing Newtonmore School there is lots of it at the base of the wall near the children's entrance.

Common Whitlow Grass

It isn't a grass but a tiny crucifer (the cabbage family) and has white seed pods like miniature versions of Honesty. It has a rosette of leaves at the base and then some small stems with flowers  at the tips. It does not mind poor soil, and is adapted by being small and disappearing before the soil dries out in the summer.  It is an annual so its seeds remain, ready to germinate in the spring (and foiling the school Janny and his weed killer!)

There are more photos in a previous post here.

UV fluorescence - what causes it?

 I have been intrigued as to how UV (ultra-violet) fluorescence works, so have been doing some research on the internet to find out.  Before I attempt to explain the science, there will be some general information and pretty pictures.First of all, what items fluoresce? You already know about lichens, but there are some common but unexpected things that give results under UV light. Here's one - eggs!

Eggs: left normal light, right UV light

The chemical in eggs shells that fluoresces is called PPIX ( Protoporphyrin IX) which gives eggs their brown colour.  You can see that the bluer egg in the box is not quite as fluorescent. There is a lot of information about fluorescence in eggs here and the diagram explaining the science is further down in this post.

The other commonly occurring chemical that fluoresces is chlorophyll, the green compound found in plants that allows them to photosynthesise (create food from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water).  I now think this is the source of the  unexplained bright red fluorescence in the previous post, shown again below, which was probably algae. 

That stick again!

You may wonder why the glow is a red colour when plants look green.  In fact, plants absorb the red wavelengths and reflect the green light (which is why they look green). When I was cleaning my greenhouse this week, I did wonder why they make greenhouse shading green - it would be better to make it red as the plants want the red light not the green! 

The explanation for the colours under UV involves some science so stop here if you are not curious...

Every atom or molecule has electrons  surrounding it.  Each electron has a certain energy, called its energy level. However, it can absorb energy and become "excited" and jump up to another energy level.  It can't just be any amount of energy though.  It needs to be a precise amount to lift it to the next energy level. Imagine a set of stairs.  To get to the next higher step, you have to step up the precise amount.

UV light has a lot of energy and causes the electron to jump up more than one step.  When it then falls down the steps, it gives out the energy as heat or for its final step down the energy is given out as light - fluorescence. The colour depends on the height of the last step down. Different chemicals have different energy levels (step heights) so fluoresce  a colour specific to that chemical.

 Here is a diagram showing the process for eggs which is from here

A similar diagram for chlorophyll in plants is called the Jablonski diagram - google it if you want to know more. Basically, the last step down is the amount of energy in a red photon, so there is red fluorescence.

As lichens produce many different chemicals as part of their defence against sunlight, predators (slugs and snails) and other lichens encroaching their space, different lichens can glow different colours under UV. Here is one  on a rock by Pattack Falls that glows a beautiful bright blue:

Sphaerophorus globosus: normal light on left, UV on right

Technical note.  The UV torch used had a wavelength of 365nm.