NT18: Cotoneaster

 One plant (yes, I considered it one plant) that I've routinely overlooked has been the Cotoneaster. I have taken a stab at a couple that I thought were OK, but since I'm putting in the effort, why not Cotoneaster(s)?

Easiest of them is, I suppose, C.horizontalis, Wall Cotoneaster. It's everywhere, and it has that horizontal plane like a big cartoon fish bone. Only other one I had from here was Waterer's, which was a result of some keying. Had to do that one because it's at Cullaloe! Seth had showed me C.bullatus, Hollyberry Cotoneaster, in Uig, so three isn't too bad. I found some bullatus in Dalgety Bay this year, 

Latest addition to my Cotoneaster collection is a species already recorded in NT18, but where? As luck would have it, when I was grabbing aquatics in Inverkeithing, my eye was taken by a tree (shrub?) at the edge of the quarry pond, which turned out to be the "missing" species - Simonsii. It didn't help yesterday that I had read it as Simsonii and got into all kinds of confusion when searching. Hopefully that will stick in some neurons somewhere inside my head.

This reminds me of a weird thing I read in Flora of the British Isles (Clapham, Tutin and Moore, rather than The Book of Stace). In the olden times species epithets formed from proper nouns were capitalised. So Cotoneaster simonsii would have been Cotoneaster Simonsii. Funny how conventions which aren't current seem odd.

Now I just need C.integrifolius to complete my NT18 set (of previously recorded spp.)

Nothing to do with the above. Just a tangent from earlier Kyuss. Be interesting to hop from connected lily pads and see how far you could get. I just found out that Dalle and Homme split donkey's ago. Finger on the pulse.