2024 County Report for Banffshire

Flora Donald

Coverage

A total of 2773 records were added to the database in VC 94 this year, 2404 of which were recorded in 2024 by 23 botanists. This constituted 526 taxa, in 12 hectads, 44 tetrads, and 58 monads. Inventories were made in four monads with no previous records.

Recording weekend

Ten botanists came for a recording weekend at the beginning of June, braving chilly squalls to look for SHARPP species along the coastline between Portgordon and Portsoy. They contributed 63% of 2024 records. Only one target species (Potamogeton natans) was refound but inventories were updated in 21 monads and a hdanful of plants last seen 60 - 70 years ago were refound. The most impressive was Goodyera repens, last recorded at Roughilly wood in 1904. An extended account of the weekend can be found in the field meeting report.

New vice county and hectad records

The first vice county record of Crassula helmsii was made during the recording weekend. Aberdeenshire council and NatureScot were quick to respond and contact the landowner.

Seventy-five new hectad records were made for taxa including Atriplex prostrata, Bolboschoenus maritimus, Gymnadenia borealis and Rubus laciniatus. Findings of Chara virgata and Chara vulgaris were new hectad records and the second record of each species in Banffshire.

Other interesting finds

Fifty-seven taxa on the rare plant register were recorded. Highlights included Trapogon pratensis found by Anne Burgess after 22 years, Pseudorchis albida refound after 19 years by Malcolm MacGarvin, and Vicia lathyroides refound in Cullen by Ian Green after 61 years.