2023 County Report for Wigtownshire

Michael Jeeves

Very little has been published on the flora of Wigtownshire (VC74), with Dr Alan Silverside’s unpublished checklist easily the most useful source of information. Now nearly 35 years old, it inevitably needs updating and I have recently prepared a draft of a new checklist, which I hope to make available on the BSBI’s website soon. I am also working on a Rare Plant Register and I have prepared a draft of that too.

In the summer of 2023, with the assistance of botanists from both Wigtownshire and neighbouring Kirkcudbrightshire, I organised further survey work at the Torrs Warren military training area, Wigtownshire’s most important site for vascular plants. I am drafting a report for the site managers. The weather had been hot and dry for some time, unusually so for this part of the country, and this appeared to have impacted on the flora.

Following on from my work at the RSPB’s Wood of Cree nature reserve, which straddles the boundary dividing VC73 and VC74, I gave a presentation on the flora and vegetation of the reserve to a meeting of wildlife recorders in Dumfries and Galloway organised by the South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre (SWSEIC).

I also assisted the Crichton Carbon Centre in surveying and gathering data on the flora of the Moss of Cree, a raised bog that has been partly restored with amazing success. Later I attended a special event to record the flora and fauna of this site at the invitation of SWSEIC.

A total of 1680 records for the year have been processed to date.