Midlothian walks
I wish to thank everyone who has come on the walks I have offered this year. I have enjoyed taking you out and getting to know you all. Some of you are now doing some recording for VC83. Thank you very much. This is a learning curve for us all. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.
I think despite the weather we have been blessed not to have been washed away on any of the walks, even though at times it has been a little chilly! I have many summer pictures of us all in my head to treasure over the winter. I hope to put on some impromptu walks to keep the botanical brain alive.
The first walk of the Year was Holyrood Park. A joint walk with the ENHS where I think there were 24 people attending. A bit scary! But we saw all the rarer spring delights of the Park. The walk was designed to suit all by avoiding too much altitude! The weather forecast was poor, but the rain kindly stayed off until we got to our final destination of Haggis Knowe. We saw, to name but a few: Silene visicaria (Sticky Catchfly), Asplenium septentrionale (Forked Spleenwort) and A. x murbeckii, Geranium sanguineum (Bloody Crane’s-bill), Helianthemum nummularium (Common Rock-rose), Anthriscus caucalis (Bur Chervil), Cerastium diffusum (Sea Mouse-ear) along Queens Drive; Ophioglossum vulgatum (Adder’s-tongue) and other species at Hunter’s Bog, also various grasses; Astragalus danicus (Purple Milk-vetch) and Spergularia rubra (Sand Spurrey) at Haggis Knowe.
Newhailes House NTS offered us some early spring woodland species including Lilium martagon (Martagon Lily) and the lovely blue flowered Symphytum caucasicum (Caucasian Comfrey), a speciality of the grounds. Introduced I’m sure.
At Stow we were all thrilled to see the Vicia orobus (Wood Bitter-vetch). We caught it just right, flowering well. Up until then the only site in Midlothian, until I found some growing on an inaccessible rocky outcrop near Carcant later this year. Possibly a place for a walk in 2025 if I can find suitable parking.
Then we bumped into Sandy Bruce who showed us exactly where the Plantago media (Hoary Plantain) was in the Old Stow Cemetery and a patch of Epipactis helleborine (Broad-leaved Helleborine) on the path to the churchyard hidden in the trees. We caught that right too! The new find for the day was a wall in Stow covered in the gorgeous flowering Hieracium villosum (Silver Hawkweed), which must be one of the prettiest Hieraciums. Verified by Brian Burrows, BSBI referee for hawkweeds.
Heriot was the quietest of my walks with only three of us. It turned out to be one of the best for new recording. We covered 3 monads. We were able to park in a small lay-by designed for only one car. It was a day made for us. A great time of the year to catch so many species. We found many records for a monad with no previous records and another monad with only one record in it. We found Acaena inermis (Spineless Acaena) was flourishing all along the path by Heriot Water. Originally recorded in 1983 It has been surviving and thriving along the edge of Heriot Water a long time. At Carcant we re-found virtually all the previously recorded species, as well as some new ones. It was a long but very fulfilling day. Thank you both.
Fala Moor A large number of you came from the Botany Group. It was a varied day. The habitat was rich with species up Fala Moor Road compared to the rather sad, barren, degraded SSSI site of Fala Moor itself. “A dry Blanket Bog.” Nevertheless, we recorded and updated many old records, found many new records and visited a monad on the moor with no records. You seemed to enjoy yourselves. I was worried I had taken you somewhere rather disappointing!
The Fisherrow day saw us updating records and finding Salsola kali (Prickly Saltwort) plants on the beach in two monads. We also went into a part monad at Eastside, which was a poorly recorded monad, in spite of being so close to Edinburgh. I went again the next day and finished it off. It can only be accessed from either end of its coastline. At Fisherrow, by the harbour itself, there was a small area of sand. This is rich in rare plants for Midlothian, being one of the only “seaside” spots. Most of the coastal areas of the Vice County are built up, unlike East Lothian.
The final walk was on the Union Canal, a linear walk From Hermiston Park and Ride to see Rumex hydrolapathum (Water Dock), Sagittaria sagittifolia (Arrowhead) and Beta trigyna (Caucasian Beet) together with two Rubus microspecies. This was the only site for the Water Dock until this year where it has been found introduced into SUDS areas and at Threipmuir’s newly made car park in the Pentlands. We also found a new site for Salix daphnoides (European Violet-willow).
If you have any suggestions of where you would like to visit next year in 2025, please let me know.
Sue Jury, Midlothian Vice-county Recorder
East Lothian walks
All the walks were well attended and we concentrated on recording this year, as you are all getting so much better. The target species in the Spring were Ficaria verna (Lesser Celandine) and Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone). Later on in August we were looking for Gentianella amarella (Autumn Gentian) and Parnassia palustris (Grass-of-Parnassus).
We had two estate policy areas to record this year: Lennoxlove which we made as a joint walk with the Edinburgh Natural History Society (ENHS), and Leuchie (which was done with Louise Hardy’s plant group); these private grounds are always interesting for exotic tree identification. Leuchie had a Mespilus germanica (Medlar) tree (the French call it “Cul de Chien” which translated is Dog’s Arse!!). Bara Wood and Lake, Garvald gorge, and Pressmennan Wood and Lake are all at a higher elevation and interesting native woods. Deuchrie is at the base of the Lammermuirs and gave us upland streams, bogs and moorland which were rich in sedges. We also had a very successful visit to the coast at St Margaret’s, Dunbar with a wonderful list of coastal plants, geology from Sandra, and the interesting Lycium barbarum (Duke of Argyll’s Teaplant), the berries being rich in Vitamin C. Louise Hardy found she had it growing as a hedge in her garden. No excuse for colds, Louise!
Willows: Sue, Caspian and I had a visit to Dundee Botanics to have a look at Willows with Les Tucker. We had a follow-up to Linn Dean, Soutra to try and find Salix myrsinifolia (Dark-leaved Willow), S. phylicifolia (Tea-leaved Willow) and S. repens (Creeping Willow); we were looking in Katie’s Cauldron which is not a safe place for the botany group so the group was kept deliberately small. Finally, we did find Salix myrsinifolia below the cliffs in the upper part of Linn Dean. What we would like to do is have a Willow session as part of our programme for next year.
At the start of this year, I was approached by Tim Duffy of SWT to make up a plants list for designated areas that require conservation; this comes under the East Lothian Council biodiversity plan – The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC) also works on assessing areas for raising the conservation status and Midlothian is well covered. The East Lothian Volunteers were approached to help with surveying the areas and given some guidance from Ben Averis who is a professional surveyor living out at Garvald. Lynn Youngs and Carolyn Hargest have been working on this all Summer and need to be congratulated for learning a new skill and being so helpful. The project last two years and so another year to go; if anyone would like to join them, get in touch.
Brambles: The Bramble Group will be coming to Dunbar over the weekend of 5/6 July 2025 as part of the BSBI workshop programme. There is a need to record East Coast brambles. Angus Hannah will be the leader and as one of the workshops at the 2024 Scottish Botanists’ Conference, he will show you how to take photos so that he can identify the species. Angus is in the process of making a book on Scottish Brambles with lots of photographs. The new BSBI App for recording is also being shown at the Conference; Caspian has been testing it out and sending me some lists.
BSBI Summer Meeting 2025 Melrose – proposed dates are Monday 4th – Thursday 7th August. Arrangements are not yet fixed or published but you might like to have this date as tentative in your diaries. Areas all round the Borders will be explored in various groups with guidance from knowledgeable leaders.
Interesting records made in 2024:
Geum macrophyllum (Large-leaved Avens) was found at Pressmennan Wood NT6228 7268 in August by Carolyn Hargest. This is a first for East Lothian (VC82). There was a good write-up for the spread of G. macrophyllum in the BSS News and how to recognize the flower and leaves. Michael Wilcox found the hybrid between G. macrophyllum and G. urbanum in England and would like your help in finding the hybrid up here. I will attach the scanned pages of the BSS News article, here and here. It is normally grown in gardens but spreading into the wild. There are records from around RBGE and also Craiglockhart and Blackford Hill. We think it also grows around the pond at Gosford.
Lactuca serriola (Prickly Lettuce) from Prestonpans Station NT3938 7371, I was helped in its identification by Markus Ruhsam from RBGE Darwin Tree of Life Project. There is a bunch of records from Glasgow but not much elsewhere, and perhaps the railway is spreading its seed. The leaf has a midrib which is white, whilst L. virosa (Great Lettuce) the midrib and stem are stained brown. L. virosa is an occasional record in VC82, but a good place to find it is at Philipstoun Bing in West Lothian.
Aquatics: we have thrown the grapnel into Pressmennan Lake, Baro Lake, ponds at Gosford and Archerfield, and a field reservoir at Markel – lots of different Potamogetons. Kit Nemeth has joined our group this year and is working at UK Hydrology, part of the Bush estate. He was very helpful in looking at an often muddy mass of vegetation that comes out on the grapnel. Anything interesting is sent away to the BSBI referees Nick Stewart for Stoneworts and Chris Preston for Pondweeds.
The Giant Hogweed Project have just had their annual meeting in Stenton, and the report is good for East Lothian, though the mud on the River Tyne still retains seeds. I have to admit that I have only reported 2 sightings this year. They have moved on to covering the River Esk in Midlothian but the weed killing does rely on the cooperation of the landowners to actually do it themselves, and progress is slow.
As Sue has said, if you have any ideas for where you would like to go on the Walks programme, let us know. We rely on you to get in touch if you have free time and want to go out botanising during the rest of the year. We need to keep the names of the plants in our heads over Winter, so we could do some Winter walks, and I would recommend going out with the Edinburgh Natural History Society as their walks run through the year.
Many thanks for sending in your records.
With best wishes,
Marion Moir, East Lothian Vice-county Recorder
