2023 County Report for East Donegal

Oisín & Mairéad Duffy

BSBI Vice-County Report – East Donegal (H34) – Oisín & Mairéad Duffy

 

During 2023 there was very limited opportunity for fieldwork in East Donegal, apart from the brief botanical pilgrimage to Murvagh to check in on some rare plant species. The two species being monitored here are Monotropa hypopitys and Pyrola rotundifolia ssp. maritima, but there are also a whole host of additional nice and uncommon species which can be found here, many of which were recorded during our BSBI field-outing in 2022. Unfortunately, in 2023 the Monotropa was not present on site during my site visit, however, it’s not unusual for the species to have an absent year or two, particularly as the survey window this year was quite tight. The Pyrola was still found here and is probably the most significant find for the vice-county this year.

Over the last number of weeks, we have been adding any outstanding records from post-2020 recording and sorting out a few issues with MapMate and computers. The dataset for East Donegal should now be up to date and available to view through BSBI Maps.

In 2024 we are hoping there will be a few more opportunities for botanical recording in East Donegal and hopefully also a few nice finds as well.