2022 County Report for North Ebudes
Stephen Bungard, Joanna Walmisley
Over 6,600 records were added to the DDb including over 20 taxa new to VC104 and over 140 new hectad records. Nearly all of the new taxa were garden escapes or planted, the remainder being microspecies or hybrids.
Recording for the Urban Flora of Scotland project was undertaken in Broadford, resulting in nearly 1,000 records from six monads.
Skye Botany Group meetings have concentrated on Scottish HectAd Rare Plant Project (SHARPP) targets and a two-part project with the Darwin Tree of Life project (DToL).
SHARPP successes included re-finding sites or finding new sites for Ribes spicatum (Downy Currant), Euphrasia heslop-harrisonii (an Eyebright), Atriplex praecox (Early Orache) and Zostera marina (Eelgrass). Additionally, some re-found plants on the SHARPP list for VC104 were of taxa whose nomenclature is in a state of flux e.g. Cochlearia officinalis subsp. scotica and Rhinanthus minor subsp. borealis, or whose actual taxonomic status is in question, e.g. Euphrasia arctica × marshallii.
With help and funding for travel and a microscope and camera from DToL, the Group has been assessing Polypodium distribution and has successfully found several locations for Polypodium × mantoniae (Manton’s Polypody, the hybrid between P. interjectum and P. vulgare). JW produced a poster about this for the Scottish Botanists’ Conference. The second part of the DToL project concerned Ophioglossum. No new sites were found during this year’s surveys, but we supplied a specimen of O. azoricum for whole genome sequencing by DToL.
Eight Hieracium (Hawkweed) specimens were collected and sent for expert determination.
