2024 County Report for Wigtownshire
Michael Jeeves
During 2024 I:
- continued to work on a Rare Plant Register and as a step towards that prepared a list of Rare Plant Register species for inclusion on VC74 web page.
- led 2 guided wildflower walks for the Solway Firth Partnership as part of the launch of the Rhins Coastal Path.
- helped to organise a successful visit to Port Kemin to re-find Small Restharrow Ononis reclinata, which involved Matt Harding abseiling down a cliff.
- organised a further visit by local botanists to West Freugh M.O.D. base in order to survey Torrs Warren sand dune system. I also attended a meeting of the West Freugh M.O.D. Conservation Group.
- surveyed two organic farms in order to assist the owner with a claim for agri-environment payments. I also helped him with a National Plant Monitoring Scheme survey. Notable finds on the farms were Heath Fragrant-orchid Gymnadenia borealis and Mountain Pansy Viola lutea.
- assisted a PhD student in the collection of small samples from the large (200 plants in 2024) Oysterplant Mertensia maritima population in Luce Bay for DNA analysis.
- joined Angus Hannah on two days to look for brambles in Wigtownshire.
- received and looked through the late Dr Alan Silverside’s notebooks, papers and dried plant specimens for Wigtownshire.
- processed a total of 1558 records.
- received a number of records from visiting botanists, including three new VC records by Paul Stanley from the same caravan site. These were Early Meadow-grass Poa infirma, Mossy Stonecrop Crassula tillaea and Bird’s-foot Clover Trifolium ornithopodioides.
Michael Jeeves