2021 County Report for Ayrshire

Dave Lang

Ayrshire recording in 2021 was largely organised around the BSBI’s Scottish HectAd Rare Plant Project (SHARPP).  With restrictions continuing, we did not (or at least not until towards the very end of the season) generally publicise these trips, and they were instead mainly carried out by the three joint-VCRs for Ayrshire, with occasional support from neighbouring VCRs and others.

The trips themselves were fairly successful – with stations for Carex riparia (Greater Pond-sedge - Locally Rare), Centaurium littorale (Seaside Centaury - Nationally Scarce and Locally Rare), Euphrasia confusa (Confused Eyebright – Data Deficient Nationally but thought to be threatened, as well as Locally Rare based on confirmed records) and Scrophularia umbrosa (Green Figwort – Locally Scarce) all refound/reconfirmed for the first time in at least 25 years. Additionally, in cases where we did not manage to refind particular old records, returning at more appropriate times of year may yet yield more positive outcomes. Many of us enjoyed this ‘treasure hunt’ approach to recording, as opposed to ‘square bashing’ - and our results (sometimes in tetrads that had in theory been covered by recent Atlas recording) demonstrate the possible (paradoxical?) risks of missing something interesting when you are trying to record everything!

Our data are pretty much up-to-date and confirmed on the Database. So for the year ahead we hope to revisit more of the ideas for trips that had to be shelved since restrictions began, and possibly to open out our recording to a wider number of members.