Hello everyone, it’s Harris here and we are back with part two of ‘Botany in Speyside’. Last time we looked at some of the rarest plants in our area. Here we look at a few of the more widespread ones, plus one extra scarce species.
Chickweed Wintergreen (Trientalis Europaea)
This plant is neither a chickweed nor a wintergreen but is named for jointly resembling members of those families. It has white flowers and a ring of five or six ovate-lanceolate leaves around its stem, which have no stalks. The flowers are solitary, fifteen to eighteen millimetres across and typically have seven petals and sepals though sometimes less. It is unbranched, hairless and spreads itself by rhizomes or underground stems. It can be found from June to July in pine, birch and oak woodland and also moorland.
Bog Bean (Menyanthes Trifoliata)
A plant of bog land lochs and other still bodies of water, or if not still, then water no faster than a stream. It’s known for its resplendent white flowers and rounded leaves, split into three leaflets. The common name is derived from the fact their leaves are shaped like broad beans. Its Latin name Menyanthes means in Greek ‘disclosing flowers’ which is a reference to the fact that it opens its flowers in a sequence. Trifoliata refers to its three leaflets. The leaves and stems are interconnected like a set of buoys floating on the sea that grow on rhizomes. The flowers look fluffy because they are fringed and are often tinged pink. It flowers from May to July, though it looks its most resplendent in June. It is one of the most protected plants in Britain, with people being legally prevented from picking it. In China it is known variously as either, ‘Sleeping Herbs’ or ‘Herbs that calm consciousness’ and has been used to treat insomnia.
Cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccos)
This is a plant of wetland and boggy areas. It likes to grow over the top of thick beds of sphagnum mosses, on thin pinkish-red stems with tiny narrow leaves. The flowers are pink and have their petals arched backwards. When the flowers have expired they produce tiny red berries, which are edible. There is a similar species called Small Cranberry (Vaccinium Microcarpum) which has smaller flowers and leaves but also hairless or glabrous stems. In case you’re wondering what their relationship is to the cranberries you see in cranberry juice, that is a related species known as American Cranberry (Vaccinium Macrocarpon) that is grown commercially mainly in Eastern North America.
Hare’s Tail Cottongrass (Eriophorum Vaginatum) - There’s two species of cottongrass that you’ll most likely see in Speyside. While they are called cottongrasses, they’re actually in the sedge family, owing to their angled stems, often three angled. The stems are usually solid on the inside. Hare’s Tail Cottongrass is one of the most distinctive. The reason for its common name is its clumped appearance that looks like the tail of the namesake creature. It also likes to grow in thick tussocks not unlike the way Soft Rushes grow in fields of rough pasture and can reach up to fifty centimetres in height. The leaves are narrow and bristle-like. The flowers are solitary and can stand upright, the glumes (membranous bracts that look like petals, that support the tiny flowers inside) are between six and seven millimetres long and have a single nerve. They have bristles that are two to two and a half centimetres long. A plant of upland areas which flowers from April to May but fruit from May to June.
Common Cottongrass (Eriophorum Angustifolium) - This species differs from its previous relative by the fact that it often has more flower heads and they dangle rather than stand up straight. The leaves of the plant are narrow, about two to five millimetres wide with channels that narrow to a triangular tip that often has a rusty red colour. This is important because it has a rarer look-alike further north called Broad Leaved Cottongrass (Eriophorum Latifolium), which as its name suggests has broader leaves and doesn’t rust. The other British species Slender Cottongrass (Eriophorum Gracile) lives further west in Western Wales, Ireland and Southern England and is slimmer and appears hairier, and likes much wetter ground.
Frog Orchid (Dactylorhiza Viridis) - A tiny unassuming orchid, usually about five to fifteen centimetres tall. The flowers are in a lax, cylindrical spike and can look reddish or greenish yellow. The common name comes from the resemblance of the labellum (or lip of the flowers) to a frog’s tongue, which are often twice as long as the actual flowers. The labellum is oblong, parallel-sided and three lobed. The spur in the middle is about two millimetres. The outer tepals (petal-like structures) on the flowers converge to give them a hooded appearance. It’s a plant that likes short grassland, dunes, scree and limestone pavements and flowers from June to August.
Creeping Ladies-Tresses (Goodyera Repens)
A kind of orchid that grows in pine forest. Its spreads by rhizomes and has an inflorescence that twists slightly, like a spiral staircase. It has white flowers that look hairy, with tepals about the same length, with a labellum (lip of the flower) that is shorter, unlobed and without a spur. It can grow to thirty-five centimetres and the stem has green bracts or very small leaves. There are basal leaves to this plant as well, which are rounded, net veined and evergreen. It flowers from July to August.
Birds Nest Orchid (Neottia Nidus-Avis)
A scarce orchid in Speyside and one with an unusual colour. The yellowish-brown colour is from a lack of chlorophyll, as the plant doesn’t photosynthesise the sun’s rays like others do, but uses its roots to tap into the roots of trees (mainly Beech) and steal nutrients, a kind of parasitism. So even if the canopy is shaded over it can survive just fine.
It can grow up to fifty centimetres and on its stem it has glandular scales that look like wood that hasn’t been sanded. It flowers from May to July.
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