Blog Entries from Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
Portree (
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Seth has found Crassula tillaea (Mossy Stonecrop) in Portree Cemetery. This is new to VC104 and seems very likely to have been introduced during the building of the cemetery extension in 2025. I have…
Eupteryx aurata (Potato Leafhopper) was swept from a mixture of Stachys sylvatica (Hedge Woundwort) and Scrophularia nodosa (Common Figwort) near Oskaig. I had this at home a few years ago. Dascillus…
In the Garden (
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An afternoon of gently weeding and pruning led to a couple of useful records. An unusual-looking fly with wings much longer than its body was resting on our Deutzia bush. Obsidentify was 100% certain…
June Plant News (
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Joanna has added Smyrnium olusatrum (Alexanders) to the vice-county list. Presumably planted originally, it is now spreading along a bank at Armadale. Quite a few surprising plants have been planted…
Following some posts on the British Leafminers FB page, I checked Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine) in the garden for larvae or pupae of Phytomyza krygeri. The very first follicle I opened contained the…
Skye Botany Group visited Loch Meadal and Loch Doiregat in Sleat yesterday. We hoped to re-find Lycopodiella inundata (Marsh Clubmoss), though it is only four months since Seth found a single strand…
More Home Finds (
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This leafspot on Solanum dulcamara (Bittersweet/Woody Nightshade) is probably Alternaria solani or Boeremia exigua, but I need spores and seem to have left it too late for this year. There were…
Along the Shore (
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A wander along the shore with two grandsons produced many of our usual finds, such as several Sea Slaters (Ligia oceanica) and several Shanny: I noticed that there was quite a bit of the “red” alga…
Micro-moth Traps (
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Wednesday night’s trap was most unusual in having large numbers of micros. There were 36 macros of 21 species and 24 micros of 13 species, including two new to my home list, one of which appears to…
Neil and I canoed to Eilean na h-Àirde, a small island off the point south of Elgol. The water was full of jellyfish, mostly Moon but also Lion’s-mane, Compass and Blue. Neil showed me this jellyfish…
