2020 County Report for North Ebudes

Stephen Bungard

It was not possible to hold Skye Botany Group meetings during 2020. Despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic, nearly 3,300 plant records were made in VC104 in 2020, including 11 plants new to the vice-county.

Only one of these is native, Hieracium silvaticoides (Wood Hawkweed) found at two sites on Raasay. Two weeds were amongst the new species, Lepidium didymum (Lesser Swine-cress) on Skye and Solanum nigrum (Black Nightshade) on Eigg. The remainder were planted or garden escapes.

A total of 60 Hieracium specimens were taken for expert determination which have made a useful start to updating county hawkweed records, a project it is intended to continue in 2021.

As usual, my blog records findings as they happen, though the scope continues to broaden from plants to include other aspects of the local environment.

The Raasay Flora has been updated to Stace 4^th edition nomenclature and taxonomy.