BSBI Summer Meeting: Part Four

The first report is in from one of the many fieldtrips offered as part of the BSBI Summer Meeting in Perthshire. Many thanks to Jon Shanklin, who tells us that "Scottish Officer Jim McIntosh led a party to the Birks O'Aberfeldy, a tree-covered ravine, with a fast flowing stream, but a fairly easy path to the waterfall at the top.  A group of 8 met up in the upper car park on a fine morning.  Recording began in the car park, where a planted Euonymus was clearly not the native one. More on this later!  

Trientalis europaea photographed
6/6/2014 at Birks o' Aberfeldy
Image: J. Shanklin

"We headed up the left hand track to the falls, stopping frequently to describe the features of new plants, and occasionally seeing more northern species that were unfamiliar to the southerners, such as Phegopteris connectilis.  At the top of the path a wet meadow provided many additions to our species list, with Trollius europaeus in flower and Cirsium heterophyllum starting to show.  On the way down we saw Trientalis europaea, another species new to many.  Having reached the car park there was still time for tea before returning, so we continued into the town adding a few more species, including Euphorbia dulcis which had spread from a garden across the footpath.  

"Back at the hotel Stace III helpfully noted a rare Himalayan species that was similar to E. europaeus but had purple anthers – just like ours did!  All the day's excursions were reported after dinner in the Baronial Hall, with a volunteer selected to speak for a couple of minutes on each visit. As these were often personal views, other members of the party often chimed in with additions to the notable species, and Ian Bonner thought Neottia nidus-avis and Equisetum pratense should also be mentioned from the Birks".

Thanks to Jon for the report and the photo. If you are at the Summer Meeting and have a camera, please take some images for News & Views and send to louise.marsh@bsbi.org

BSBI Summer Meeting: Part Three

More from Day 1 of the Summer Meeting, where Alistair Godfrey gave a talk on The history of recording in Perthshire and some of the plants our botanists were likely to see during their visit. 

Agrimonia eupatoria
Image: J. Crellin

Jon Shanklin reports that "Rannoch Moor has many small pools which provide homes to plants such as Scheuchzeria palustris (discovered in England but now extinct there) and Carex limosa. There are remnants of old Caledonian pine forest, Silene acaulis and Salix lanata are found in montane regions, and there are interesting plants on Ben Lawers, though it takes some effort to get to the top! Agrimonia eupatoria - widespread in southern England - is largely coastal in the north and Scotland, though it is found round some of the larger lochs in Perthshire, which ameliorate the climate. 

Martin & Sally recording on the Shiants
Image: L. Marsh

"The plants themselves provide the earliest records, for example a Bronze Age logboat made from a tall oak. Gaelic culture leaves a residue in place names, with several named for trees, eg Fearna for Alder. The earliest written records date from 1667 when Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour established a botanic garden in Edinburgh. Alistair then took us through a chronology of notable botanists formerly active in the region, along with stories of their travels. Charles McIntosh, for example, enthused Beatrix Potter who illustrated some fungi for him".

"Martin Robinson picked up the thread with his talk on The rare plants of Perthshire. He defined rarity by looking at the number of hectads in Perthshire compared to the UK total and took us through his Top 10. Carex vaginata has its stronghold in the central to southern Highlands, so it can be quite common in Perthshire when you are in the right habitat. Carex norvegica is another sedge with a northern centre of distribution. Astragalus alpinus has only five sites in the country, but some may see it on Friday, although in some locations it is declining due to competition from graminoids. In this case lack of grazing may be contributing to the decline. Gentiana nivalis only grows in two areas.  Blue Heath Phyllodoce caerulea was only known to grow in one site and is difficult to find, as it is a shy flowerer and tends to grow with Empetrum nigrum. It is more obvious when in flower. In the 1960s a further site was discovered, so there may be others. 

Tofieldia pusilla
Image: C. Robson

"Kobresia simpliciuscula prefers the band of calcareous ground running through the Highlands, growing in open stony flushes.  It also grows in Upper Teesdale. The next two are both Ben Lawers specialities: Carex atrofusca and Carex microglochin, plants of the high flushes. Schoenus ferrugineus was historically only known around Loch Tummel, but after hydro-electric works that might destroy it some was transplanted, although it only survives at two of these sites, then it was found two new sites. Finally the top rarity was Polygonatum verticilatum which has twelve extant sites, often in gullies on bare leaf litter.  Some of the sites are quite difficult to get to!  There has definitely been a decline, so the RBGE has propagated some from a rhizome and returned it to the wild, where in at least one site it has done well.

"A few other plants might be included, eg Scheuchzeria palustris and Bartsia alpina, though these mostly occur outside Perthshire. There is one calcareous crag which has Oxytropis campestris and Veronica fruticans. Oxytropis halleri might be seen on Ben Vrackie, along with Cerastium alpinum and Astragalus alpinus. Other rarities include Minuartia rubella, Sedum  villosum, Lychnis visicaria, Carex capillaris, Gentianella amarella, Potentilla krantzii, Tofieldia pusilla and Dactylorhiza incarnata".

Thanks Jon - more to follow!

Simple pleasures

Sisymbrium officinale
Image courtesy of John Crellin
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/

A reminder that you don't always need to travel far to be amazed and enthralled by plants. So, while some of us are living the botanical high-life in Perthshire, we can all enjoy the "weeds" in our local patch, and close observation usually yields something interesting! 

Take a look at this excellent Blogpost by BSBI member Alan, and then see what you think of the hairs on Sisymbrium officinale. 

And if you think Buddleja davidii Butterfly Bush could hold no surprises for you, try turning the leaf over and look closely with a handlens. You should see the textbook stellate hairs that John Poland talks about, like tiny parasols. A great way to conserve water, if you are a chunky ruderal plant intending to grow out of a wall and not die of thirst :-) 

BSBI Summer Meeting:Part Two

Botanists attending our Summer Meeting are out in the field today, enjoying some of the fabulous site visits that Jim McIntosh and his team have put together. The difficult bit for everyone will have been deciding which of the selection of visits to pick - you can't fit everything in and the choices are all mouth-watering! Today's options include Ballinluig Island, the Birks of Aberfeldy and Killiecrankie. 

The famous Birnam Oak
Image: J. Shanklin

So, while the botanists are out in the field in Perthshire today, we'll have to be content with this report from Jon Shanklin on the second of the guest talks, this one by Dan Watson of the National Trust for Scotland, on the subject of 30 years of monitoring rare plants on Ben Lawers.  

Jon said "Dan's talk linked in nicely with the previous one and his monitoring had seen similar evidence for an increase in graminoids." These are the rough notes that Jon took, so may be subject to editing at some point, if we realise that there are errors in reporting. But for now, here we go:

"Many of the rare plants occur in flushes and other places which are not so severely affected by the environmental changes. Ben Lawers has been known as a hot-spot for rare plants for over a century, but there had been no monitoring and populations were not known when NTS took on the site. In 1979 a ranger-naturalist was employed and new locations, for example of Carex microglochin, were found, and Sagina nivalis was refound. A complete survey of the rare plants was carried out in 1981. Counts of S. nivalis show variation between a peak of nearly 4000 in 1996 and around 1000 in the 21^st century, which was interpreted as a general decline".

At this point Jon - a physicist - offers his own comment "I would not say there was a trend as only four data points are available!" Good point, Jon.

Gentiana nivalis
Wiki Commons

But back to Jon's notes on what Dan was saying: "Gentiana nivalis has also been monitored, with one experiment putting cages over plants, but it became clear that as an annual it needs disturbed bare ground. It seems to be doing OK on ledges etc, but less well on grassland. Erigeron alpinus and Minuartia rubella have been more intensively monitored, and perhaps show a stable or increasing population. Woodsia alpina declined after 1981 but has been more stable since, but possibly because it is difficult to access the ledges on which it grows and no-one has been able to access the 1981 locations since then. Dan (in post since 2010) pointed out that different botanists have differing ability to spot plants and this may affect species counts. Grazing has changed, but some farmers have hereditary rights to graze so it is difficult to control. Dan then described Salix lanata and Saxifraga rivularis, which need active management as populations have dropped to a critical level; Bartisa alpina, which may be extinct; and gave examples of some plants which are not monitored but perhaps should be!"

All fascinating stuff - and that was all before lunch on Day 1! More to follow, watch this space.

BSBI Summer Meeting: Part One

The first reports are coming in from Birnam, where the Summer meeting is being held. Talks today, which was good because apparently the weather wasn't great. Forecast for tomorrow is much better, which is also good because some of the botanists - including our President Ian Denholm -  are heading for the heights of Ben Vrackie. I expect great photos with a minimum of Gore-Tex if possible!

BSBI members dined together in the Baronial Hall
Image: B. Barnett

The meeting is being held over several days and kicked off last night (Wednesday) with a big dinner in the fabulous Baronial Hall and my spies tell me that the food was really good, to match the venue! I hear a little wine was also taken but that may just be an ugly rumour.

Ian welcomed everyone to the Meeting proper this morning, and opened the proceedings with a "Latest News from BSBI Central" sort of talk - I'll see if we can put the Powerpoint up on the website so you can all see it. 

The first guest talk to delight the botanists today was from Dr Louise Ross, and Meetings Secretary Jon Shanklin (he of "Ozone Hole" fame) was on hand to take notes, so even those of us who couldn't attend can get a flavour of the event. I'm told that more photos will follow (please!!!) but Jon's notes are hot off the press, unedited and Chunk Number 1 is reproduced for you here:

Ian Denholm inspiring the troops!
Image: B. Barnett

"Dr Louise Ross described Analysing upland vegetation change using botanical plot records from the 1950s.  In 1952 Duncan Poore conducted a botanical survey of Breadalbane, which resulted in three publications.  Between 1955 and 1959 Donald McVean and Derek Ratcliffe carried out surveys of the Scottish Highlands and in1962 Plant Communities of the Scottish Highlands was published, covering 952 plots.  Since then there have been drivers for change: grazing, burning, pollutants and climate change, which all interact.  How has the vegetation changed, what is the best way to resurvey and what are the key drivers and how have the nature conservation designations affected the change (eg SSSI or not) were questions that formed part of Dr Ross's PhD project and also a subsequent research project.  Types were broadly acid grassland, upland fens and swamps and montane heaths.

Browsing the botanical books
Image: B. Barnett

"Resurvey was based on the original 6-figure grid reference, combined with some of the written background information to provide better location, though - as long as temporal change was greater than spatial variability - precise location didn’t affect the results. There was no significant change in species richness, but there was reduced heterogeneity and change in composition. There was a general decline in bryophytes, not much change in dwarf shrubs, a reduction in forbs, an increase in graminoids, and a decline in lichens.

" Winning species tend to have a temperate distribution with higher temperatures and less precipitation, whilst losers have an arctic-montane distribution with lower temperatures and higher precipitation. A new term is thermophilisation – an increase in warm-adapted species with a concurrent decline in cold-adapted species. In general the montane habitats have undergone the greatest increase in thermophilization. Finally there was a difference between SSSI and non-SSSI plots, with the SSSI have changed least, but it was not sufficient to override the effects of environmental change drivers. A full database will appear on the SNH website later in 2014. In response to questions, Dr Ross said that climate change was a bigger driver than grazing pressure, and that arctic-alpines were under greatest threat in the future."

Botanical outreach, BSBI Scotland style

Jim and young botanists, Scottish Birdfair
Image: F. Anstey

BSBI Scottish Officer Jim McIntosh has just taken a short break from preparing for the BSBI Summer Meeting, due to start in Perthshire this evening, to tell me about his team's incredibly successful day at Scottish Birdfair last month. 

Jim said "We had a great weekend at Scottish Birdfair, despite a poor weather forecast which discouraged folk, but which never really materialised.  More than 50 people took part in the BSBI Wildflower ID Quiz and many others complimented us on how nice our stand looked, with a colourful assortment of 12 wild flower specimens in jam jars on display for the competition.  There were 14 Junior (under 18) competition entries – several of whom got 12/12. Two prizes were awarded: a Collins Flower Guide by David Streeter (18+) to Kirsty Godsman and a Black’s Wildflowers of Britain & Europe (Junior) to Anne Clark.  Both of whom got 12/12 – and Kirsty got extra points for adding the correct scientific names".

One of this year's Wildflower Family Workshops
Image: J. McIntosh

 Apparently "a further 25 folk noted their interest in future Wildflower Family Workshops". These were organised jointly by BSBI and Plantlife and ran at locations across Scotland this year. They were so successful that a repeat performance is pretty much guaranteed for next year and it sounds as though Jim is already taking names. Contact Jim for more information. 

Jim also tells me that Kirsty Godsman, who won the the Over 18s prize in the ID Quiz, took the plunge and joined the BSBI, so a big welcome to her and congratulations to both prize-winners. And congratulations to Jim and his team of volunteers for representing the society so well at Scottish Birdfair. 

Don't forget, BSBI will also be attending British Birdfair in August. But first, there is the BSBI Summer Meeting - fingers crossed that the weather is kind for all those fabulous fieldtrips! 

A botanist's response to hold-ups

Three species of Artemisia
Image: S. Masters

I love the way botanists turn minor irritations and small problems to their advantage, rather than complaining about their lot! 

BSBI member Susanne Masters has emailed from Bhutan, where she is attending an Ethnobiology conference. 

Susanne said "While waiting for road blocks to be cleared, there is always plenty of diversion to be found in the roadside plants. The other day I found three different species of Artemisia growing together. 

Fragrant Bhutanese hot stone baths
Image: S. Masters

"One of them also appears in fragrant Bhutanese hot stone baths - the water is heated by rocks that have been cooked for a couple of hours."

I guess the moral of this tale is: whether you are in Bhutan or Birmingham, waiting for a bus or waiting for a road-block to be cleared, if you don't want life's little hold-ups to ruin your day, keep a hand-lens and an ID book handy. You never know what plants might be lurking nearby, just waiting to be spotted by a passing botanist!