2022 County Report for Kincardineshire

David Elston & David Welch

Filling gaps in records

A particular focus continues to be to visit and produce species lists for poorly recorded tetrads, in some cases requiring visits to tetrads with no previous botanical records in the BSBI Distribution Database (DDb). In total 51 such tetrads have been recorded in 2022 leaving 38 priority tetrads to be recorded in including 9 with fewer than 10 taxa in the DDb.

 

Rare Plant Register (RPR)

Work has continued on summarising records and producing accompanying text for a RPR for Kincardineshire. Some 450 taxa will be included, and the production of maps and insertion into neatly laid-out tables is being performed using a script in the statistical package R. It is hoped that a full version of the RPR will be ready for release in 2023.

 

Outreach

1) A guided walk was given for the Scottish Wildlife Trust Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Local Group at St Cyrus NNR on 4th June.

2) A talk entitled “Discovering Wild Plants In And Around Aberdeen” was given both to the Bridge of Don Community Discussion Group (13th October) and to the Scottish Wildlife Trust Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Local Group (20th October). This talk drew heavily on records from Kincardineshire.

 

Urban Flora

An Urban Flora recording weekend was organised jointly with Botanical Society of Scotland (main photo by Chris Jeffree) from Friday 8th - Monday 11th July. In total, the 17 people involved collected about 3300 records involving 426 taxa across 8 different settlements, 4 of which gave records for Kincardineshire.

Phleum arenarium (Sand Cat’s-tail)

The guided walk for the Scottish Wildlife Trust Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Local Group at St Cyrus NNR on 4th June led to two important finds: the first ever detailed grid reference for Phleum arenarium (Sand Cat’s-tail) in Kincardineshire (photo) and the first Kincardineshire record of Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort) since 1992.

Lepidium campestre (Field Pepperwort)

Lepidium campestre (Field Pepperwort) was found by a cliff-top raised golf tee at Stonehaven Golf Course whilst gathering a full species list for the hectad NO88. This is the first Kincardineshire record since 1960.

Dryopteris oreades (Mountain Male-fern)

Dryopteris oreades (Mountain Male-fern) was found on a rock in heathland at Glensaugh, Fettercairn, just a few hundred metres from the site of the only previous Kincardineshire record.

Prunus domestica subsp inisitia (Bullace)

Prunus domestica subsp inisitia (Bullace) is thinly scattered in Kincardineshire, and whilst the grove at Kinneff bloomed well this year (photo), no fruit were produced.

Polygonum boreale (Northern Knotgrass)

Polygonum boreale (Northern Knotgrass) was found in an arable field entrance near Cammachmore, a new species for Kincardineshire.

Salix triandra (Almond Willow)

The only candidate Salix triandra (Almond Willow) tree, at Waulk Mill, Strachan, has been cut down. However, a sprout from the base has been grown on and is now established in a garden in Banchory. The catkins recovered from the sawn-off branches were short and possibly suggest a cultivar or × mollissima.