2021 County Report for North Ebudes

Stephen Bungard

Over 130 new hectad records were made in VC104 in 2021. So far, over 8000 records have been transferred to the DDb. There are more, perhaps 2000, monad records of common plants that are not new at the tetrad level to be added, following a change of heart as to what to put on the DDb. Additionally, there are many thousands of such records from 2020 to add.

Skye Botany Group (SBG) has started a project with the Darwin Tree of Life project concerning Polypodium (Polypodies) and Ophioglossum (Adder’s-tongues).

SBG was also involved in BSBI’s SHARP Project with mixed success, re-finding old sites for e.g. Potamogeton berchtoldii (Small Pondweed), Carex arenaria (Sand Sedge) and Gentianella campestris (Field Gentian) but not e.g. Pseudorchis albida (Small-white Orchid) or Potamogeton epihydrus (American Pondweed).

Members of SBG also surveyed Portree for the Urban Flora of Scotland project which resulted in a number of additions to the VC104 plant list. In total, 18 additions have been made this year, mostly garden escapes/throw-outs or planted in the wild.

An exhibit for the Scottish Botanists’ Conference about plants new to vice-county 104 in 2021 showed the fourteen new species recorded by then.

Thirty-two Hieracium (Hawkweed) specimens were collected and determined.

Cotoneasters in the C. bullatus/rehderi group have been studied and it appears that all VC104 plants examined are the former, based on petiole length, leaf length, leaf width and pubescence. However, the fruit size is larger than that given for C. bullatus in reference works.