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Post by NellyDee on Apr 20, 2016 14:27:53 GMT
My mind seems to have gone blank and I cannot remember what this is. One single flower, nothings else around except three wood anemones (it's spring !)
 DSCF3239 by Helen Skelton, on Flickr
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Post by ayjay on Apr 20, 2016 14:42:09 GMT
Celandine?
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 21, 2016 11:54:16 GMT
LOL! Amazing how seeing something out of context plays tricks on the mind. Last week I was waxing lyrical on the sight of Lesser Celandine coming out in full force in Glen Lonan. I see one individual flower amid leaf litter in open ground and wonder what it is. No excuse!
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Post by faith on Apr 21, 2016 13:47:08 GMT
Do you want to know some interesting things about this plant? It commonly has 7 or 8 petals, but can have 12 or more. However, it only has 3 sepals, instead of the more usual thing of petal number = sepal number. There are two native subspecies and two introduced subspecies. The two native ones can be told apart according to whether they have tubers that form between stem and leaf at a later stage. The species used to be in the Ranunculus genus, the same as buttercups and water crowfoots (crowfeet?) but has been moved to the genus Ficaria in which it is the only UK species. (Don't ask me why – it's one of those obscure DNA decisions.) So it is now called Ficaria verna. Wasn't that interesting??
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 21, 2016 16:48:17 GMT
Thank you Faith, yes very interesting. This info will go in my record of plants along with their photos.
4 years ago, after clearing an acre of land which I wanted to be a wild meadow, wetland and bog and anything that came up along the burn, I then recorded everything that appeared. Recorded upwards of 70 different species from reeds, ferns, flowers and also what insects were attracted. I was over the moon. Then disaster – There was a land slid high up which went into the burn’s upper reaches, this caused a tidal wave down the burn, which when coming to its meander across the lower ground, fill the burn to the top of its banks and spread the rocks, pebbles, sand and debris to litter the lower ground, so the burn overflows every time there is heavy rain. This was compounded by the sheep off the local hill farm deciding that they much preferred grazing on my land and garden – upwards of 20, a couple of them even had their lambs down there. This problem, believe it or not took nearly a year to resolve.
At last I can try again! First things to appear, the single lesser celanine, a couple of clusters of primroses – including I think some Scottish primrose, along the burn edge, and 6 wood anemone. The reeds have grown – obviously sheep don’t like those, marsh marigold – no flowers yet and bugle no flowers yet oh and a couple of marsh thistles. sorry long story!
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Post by faith on Apr 21, 2016 20:21:40 GMT
It sounds like great fun, even if it isn't all going exactly according to plan! I will be very interested to hear what else comes up. We once enclosed a piece of land in Ardnamurchan previously grazed by sheep and just waited to see what appeared – it was totally fascinating. By the way, you wouldn't be getting Scottish primrose round your way – it is a tiny tiny plant only found on the very northern edge of the mainland and on the coast in Orkney etc; I think what you maybe have is a purple garden primrose that's gone wild, which they love to do and will persist for many years. What sort of reeds are they? Could be soft rush, common reed or a few other things.
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 22, 2016 15:30:09 GMT
The three biggest spreads are Sedge Carex, Soft rush Juncus effuses and Tufted hair grass Deschampsia cespitosa. some how always think of Sedge as a reed. When I did the first year lists there was an amazing variety of grasses. The primrose that is growing along the burn, appeared after the deluge which was carried down to the lower ground. There is nothing up but the rise up Fiarach, forestry and the hill farm land, no properties, so I was very surprised to see them, They were not in the garden area, possible in the distant past there may have been some planted in the land we cleared but I doubt anything was actually planted there. The only near thing I could find when search for ID was the Scottish. Here I and the previous owners only ever had the wild primrose and planted in the garden area Primula denticulate, so it is still a misty.
I am still hoping that everything that appeared before will do so again, fingers crossed. |
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Post by faith on Apr 22, 2016 15:41:30 GMT
Juncus effusus certainly sounds right – every self-respecting Scottish bog is full of it! Deschampsia cespitosa too, perhaps where it is not quite so boggy. But Carex is a genus with about 70 species (not so many of which are found in Scotland, however). Later in the year when your Carex is in fruit, post some nice close-ups and descriptions of it, and we'll be able to narrow it down – probably you have several different species. The Scottish primrose is not going to be found in an inland bog that's for sure, and it is about a quarter of the size of the ordinary primrose; perhaps you have a sort of colour variation of a wild primrose, but I have to confess I have never seen one. Perhaps aeshna has?
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 23, 2016 9:15:04 GMT
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Post by faith on Apr 23, 2016 16:35:29 GMT
 Thanks for these. The sedge looks like Bottle Sedge, Carex rostrata; it usually grows in standing water or very close to it, but your patch might once have been wetter than it is now and the sedge persisted. The darker purple primroses are certainly garden primulas, which often have a long life away from where they were originally planted. The pink ones are very interesting, I think they are most likely to be a hybrid between wild primroses and the purple garden ones. The (rather blurry!) pic above is of a Scottish primrose that I took when I was in Orkney a couple of years ago: it is just about two inches tall – I had to lie flat on my face to photograph it! |
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 24, 2016 9:31:35 GMT
Thanks for the ID on sedge. It has been in standing water for nearly a year now (weather)where an 'occasional loch' covered nearly half the cleared land. In this wee spell of warm and rain free weather and some major drainage works it has at last drained away, but it is very boggy and still has a secondary wee burn running through it. Thanks for the pic of the Scottish primrose, will keep that as reference. I had trouble with ID with the ones here having rounded leaves and of course size - should have looked closer at the description in my flower book:).
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Post by faith on May 4, 2016 11:42:45 GMT
 A friend sent me these pictures of primroses seen in quite a wild bit of Perthshire forestry. I think it is fairly clear that at one time there was a purple garden Primula nearby (bird-sown, garden throw-out?) which has hybridised with the wild Primroses here. In fact there were several shades from pale pink to quite strong purple, so a hybrid swarm seems to be indicated. The second pic looks like the (quite common) hybrid between Primrose and Cowslip, but it is possible that one of the parents wasn't actually wild. Attachments:
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