NT18 vascular plant update

Middle of June I have recorded vascular plants in 52 of the 81 terrestrial squares in NT18. That looks like this:

I've recorded 409 of targetted 500 plants and added 24 species to the square list. I think I'm still in with a decent chance. I slowed down after the winter-available plants started to dry up and there was a degree of repetition creeping in. That looked like this...

Now I'm on a steady climb and if I can turn a blind eye to inverts once in a while it'll be all good. Also if I can start to work on my Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Juncaceae ...

Also, I today exceeded my previous plant record highest total with a new total of  1978 records - previous high 1973 records in 2020. I expect I may add one or two more. I've seen 51 new vascular plants this year, though a good few of those haven't been in NT18 or VC85.

Well, I woke up this morning ....

A pre-breakfast stroll around the eastern cliffs of Dalgety Bay turned up a remarkable three new flowering plant species (for Dalgety Bay) and a moth. I was sort of looking for something else (Spring Vetch, Purple Milk Vetch), but that'll do for one morning. I was supposed to be gathering flies but fortunately it was too windy.

Kidney Vetch

Common Centaury

Common Mallow

While searching the heath at Hopeward Point I noticed a really scabby Lotus, which at first I thought was a different plant until I realised it was being eaten alive by Coleophora discordella. That was new for me, so a nice random find.

Common Cornsalad in Dalgety Bay - 400th flowering plant

This afternoon found a large area of flowering Common Cornsalad in the car park of BAE (waiting for someone to challenge me for loitering in BAE car park!). This is the 400th flowering plant I have a record for in Dalgety Bay.

Must be some sort of salad on the cards as there was also Allium vineale, Wild Garlic (Onion) and some peas, albeit Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea.

Plants quickie update

Been neglecting plants of late, trying to pick up some better distribution of flies now the sun is shining (ish).

However, a few nice and expected things are emerging. The Lords-and-ladies is flowering in Dalgety Bay, and I found a new patch this lunchtime at St.Margaret's. The Adoxa in Aberdour is alive and well. And, while visiting St.Margaret's to check out the flies I also stumbled across Middle-flowered Winter-cress (Barbarea intermedia), which was a very nice surprise, and my 15th addition to the NT18 list this year. Oh, and the Woodruff in Dalgety Bay. I forgot to mention the Woodruff that I looked in on yesterday - yep, all fine.

I need to get my finger out now there's a big surge in plant appearance. Otherwise I'm going to miss a bunch of spring-flowering things.

Woodruff

Town Hall Clock

Lords-and-ladies

Myosotis discolor - a popping up pavement weed

Barbarea intermedia

Lower stem leaves

Upper stem leaves

Springbeauty new to Dalgety Bay/NT18

 

After seeing a splendid display of Springbeauty (Claytonia perfoliata) in St.Andrews over the weekend I was surprised to see, on the way to the shop this morning, a single plant at the base of the wall beside Tesco. Having concentrated on the flowering tips previously I was glad I had a look at less mature plants with only leaves. 

The leaf similarity with Pink Purslane is obvious and I discovered that it has the alternate name of Winter Purslane. Maybe other people know it by this primarily. I've had that experience before ("Do you know Jack-by-the-hedge?" ... no - never heard of it)

Flowering plant 398 for Dalgety Bay. Vascular plant #296 for NT18, 2022.

NT18: If you go down in the woods today...

The small woodlands scattered across NT18 have turned up numerous surprises. They all seem to have something different in them. Another wander up Letham Hill between Dalgety Bay and Inverkeithing proved there was more than one plant of Stinking Hellebore. in fact, it's everywhere! Besides the patch below there are numerous individuals scattered across the hill.

Besides that, it must be about the most dull square in the hectad (so far). Note the complete absence of ground layer here.

A square in the SE corner of Dunfermline, close to where my office was, is infested with Spurge-laurel, which was new to me, at least insofar as recording is concerned. I don't remember seeing it before, though. I wonder if these are a result of my not bothering to look for plants in the early parts of the year.

Crow Wood in Dalgety Bay has a secret stash of Lords-and-ladies, which is now popping up all over, along with a sizeable patch of Winter Heliotrope..

Before too long I'll pop along to see if I can catch up with Siberian Squill, which is (at least, was) widely naturalised in Wemyss Kirk Wood, though it isn't in NT18. Somehow each random patch of wood seems to have adopted its own specialty. Townhill Wood has a large area of Creeping Comfrey

Neither the Comfrey nor the Spurge-laurel were recorded before in NT18, and it feels like even the most apparently tedious wood is going to cough up something of note. One can but hope.

NT18 - You've sunk my Hellebore!

Went for a lunchtime wander around Aberdour, an old town with plentiful gardens and garden escape possibilities

It was mostly routine stuff. Oxford rag is shooting up all over the place right now, and there was plenty of that about. There's also a Myosotis (Forget-me-not), which I think is arvensis, that's filling many pavement edges. The leaves don't fit M.ramossissima (Early), so far as I can tell.

There's one passage parallel to the railway line where an embankment is dotted with various Cotoneasters. I haven't by any means figured all them out, and maybe I never will!

H.argutifolius

Best find was a flowering Corsican Hellebore (Helleborus argutifolius) that is perched oddly on top of an old wall. It seems that this is the only square in Fife where it has been recorded and, had I not gone down this exact backstreet, I would never otherwise have come across it.

BSBI Atlas square

That's species 287 for NT18 this year, and there may be one or two more still to ID from yesterday. If I really, really pushed it I might have been able to get to 300 by end of February. But I'm not going to.

In further news I discovered an old record of Siberian Squill at ... Cullaloe! By the entrance road!! That can't still be there. Can I really have been missing it for 30 years?

The Who aren't a band I think about very often, but somehow this song came to mind. Seek and ye shall find.

NT18 - Inverkeithing

NT1282, a square with a harbour, a railway line, a park and ride/bus station, allotments and a cemetery, is surely a square with potential. Over 50 spp., recorded but with nothing particularly out of the ordinary, except this rampant Persian Ivy. It has the ize, the leaf shape, the smell, the red petioles, but I couldn't find any of the stellate hairs, which was disappointing. I guess I need to snag a younger part of the plant.

I only managed a wander down the main road and a bit bordering the allotments. There were, as usual, some mystery plants, so I expect there might be yet some surprises in store here.

I also stumbled across, almost literally, this giant puffball, which must have looked lovely last year

A promising looking pile of mulch yielded almost nothing on the beetle front, which was disappointing. I figure it was quite a new pile and hasn't been populated yet.

NT18: Aberdour loop, NT1884

Presented with a two hour window of free time yesterday I headed for a square not botanised this year, but also carrying a tray and sieve. 

The botanical haul in NT1884 was fairly routine, but gave a reasonable account of the square in February. Perhaps not enough woodland/arable covered as I skirted the coast and golf course. I found a lovely marshy area which will require further bothering for invertebrates later in the year, but which already delivered on a brief prodding.

I found this Leistus fulvibarbis under the loose bark of a large log, under which was a nest belonging to a quickly-escaping small mammal. I hope it returned happily after I left.

The marshy area held a few Stenus, including S.bimaculatus, which was only new to Fife from Cullaloe a couple of years back.

Finally looking at other habitats than tussocks I had a bit of a seaweed shake and found Cafius xantholinus and Omalium laeviusculum. The latter appears new to me, though I can't quite believe that. Must have forgotten to write it down at some point, surely.

Cafius

Omalium

Last night I found something even more intriguing on the Cafius - a Laboulbeniomycete, which appears to be the host-specific Laboulbenia littoralis, only described in 2014. That requires some more confirmation (though I'm claiming it!) as it doesn't yet appear on NBN. The species is known from Belgium and France, the locations under consideration in the original 2014 description. I have a sneaking suspicion that I remember a Laboulbeniomycete new to Britain was documented by Mark Telfer in the recent past. It couldn't be this one, could it? (no - it was on a millipede). It looks like this:

a femur-full

mature fungus, spores escaping at the tip

In order to complete my loop I had to wander out and in of my 1k square, which threw me into a street full of Mind-your-own-business. This is a plant scarce in Fife, and previously known from the St.Andrews area. Since the start of the year, this is the 2nd location in NT18 that I've found it running wild.

A small sample of far more extensive cover. 

New plants for the year in NT18 were Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime), Hypericum tetrapterum (Square-stalked St.John's Wort) and Iris pseudacorus (Yellow Flag Iris).Current total 283.

NT18 - beetles

It wasn't really my intention to go big on beetles in 2022, but in a cold February when there's not a huge amount of gains to be made on plants and flies are in short supply, what's a boy to do? (typical winter sports of bryophytes and lichens aside, that is). A few exploratory trips and suddenly NT18 beetles 2022 stumbled into the light.

So far I've submitted 45 records of 37 species, 8 of which have been new to me. Other than the first records, which were of incidental ladybird observations, that means one new species per outing. I'll take that. It's not like I'm keying masses out, either. There's just enough variation between sites to keep things ticking along.

Coverage

The list

#	Family	Accepted name	Common name
1	Carabidae	Aepus marinus
2	Carabidae	Agonum emarginatum
3	Carabidae	Bembidion guttula
4	Carabidae	Bembidion mannerheimii
5	Carabidae	Calodromius spilotus
6	Carabidae	Ocys harpaloides / tachysoides agg.
7	Carabidae	Paradromius linearis
8	Carabidae	Pterostichus diligens
9	Carabidae	Pterostichus niger
10	Carabidae	Pterostichus strenuus
11	Carabidae	Trechus obtusus
12	Carabidae	Trichocellus cognatus
13	Chrysomelidae	Altica lythri
14	Chrysomelidae	Chrysolina staphylaea
15	Chrysomelidae	Phaedon tumidulus	Celery Leaf Beetle
16	Chrysomelidae	Phyllotreta nigripes	Turnip Flea Beetle
17	Coccinellidae	Chilocorus renipustulatus	Kidney-spot Ladybird
18	Coccinellidae	Coccidula rufa
19	Coccinellidae	Coccinella septempunctata	7-spot Ladybird
20	Scirtidae	Cyphon variabilis
21	Silphidae	Silpha atrata	Black Snail Beetle
22	Staphylinidae	Anotylus rugosus
23	Staphylinidae	Lathrobium geminum
24	Staphylinidae	Quedius curtipennis
25	Staphylinidae	Rugilus orbiculatus
26	Staphylinidae	Stenus bifoveolatus
27	Staphylinidae	Stenus canaliculatus
28	Staphylinidae	Stenus clavicornis
29	Staphylinidae	Stenus flavipes
30	Staphylinidae	Stenus fulvicornis
31	Staphylinidae	Stenus impressus
32	Staphylinidae	Stenus juno
33	Staphylinidae	Stenus similis
34	Staphylinidae	Tachinus rufipes
35	Staphylinidae	Tachyporus chrysomelinus
36	Staphylinidae	Tachyporus hypnorum
37	Staphylinidae	Tachyporus obtusus

NT18 - Hill of Beath

 

Hill of Beath (in NT19) from the pond (in NT18)

monads with 2022 vascular plant records

Visited my old hometown, or at least the nearby countryside, and picked up Shrubby Cinquefoil.

Also added Cherry Laurel from yesterday, which apparently I haven't recorded before. Here's a terrible pic

In numbers:

963 vascular plant records in 65 families (my highest ever families for a year on iRecord!)

32 (of 81) monads visited

273 spp. in NT18

9 spp. new to hectad

NT18 - Lathrobium geminum new to VC85

From a tussock at the end of a hedge and ditch on the edge of woodland and arable land, east side of Townhill Country Park. NT11398985. You can actually see the tussock here. I only cut out about 2.5"/10cm square and there's another first for VC85 still to confirm from the same section.

Male and female. Relationship status: unknown.

aedeagus

 

NT18 - "What the hell am I doing here..."

"I'm a creep ... ing Comfrey". A rare plant in Fife, according to the flora, but a nice extensive patch in Townhill Woods today. I really only went to grab some beetles, but since it was an unexplored bit of plant territory I had my eye out anyway. If I hadn't clocked the flowers I would have really been struggling, but after seeing them there was only one section of plants to look at.

Area covered during lunch

Symphytum grandiflorum. NT1089:

Obviously ...

NT18 - It's a mystery, and reminders

Inevitably over the past three weeks the number of mysteries has been steadily growing, though not too horribly. At least some of them, if noted, will repay a visit when they've gone beyond vegetative. Hopefully.

Aberdour shore edge

Aberdour shore - I know this ... hmmm ...

Inverkeithing

N.Queensferry - heboid

Cullaloe - mystery St John's-wort

Inverkeithing and Calais Muir

N.Queensferry

Limekilns and Inverkeithing

Actually, that's more than I thought. Some of them may no doubt give me "duh" moments later on as it dawns on me. Others may remain a mytery for who knows how long.

Cultural learnings from the last week: I found Jointed rush (J.articulatus) and Large Bittercress (C.amara) together in two places last week, which by the looks of it puts those spots in the neighbourhood of MG10 wet neutral grassland (sounds legit). Thanks, Ben Averis and "Plants and Habitats". British Plant Communities doesn't mention the bittercress, but the assemblage looks about right. Both areas were bordering more-or-less static small bodies of water. The spot at Cullaloe where I found C.amara last year was also on the edge of the very smallest "pool" (a puddle, really).

To save me searching in future I should expect Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus) (well, ok...),  Creeping Bent (Agrostis stolonifera), (Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), which all sounds reasonable.

Carex panicea (Carnation Grass) would be nice, though I didn't see any signs of old stuff. 

Some of the others definitely look not unreasonable too, with Ragged Robin, Yellow Iris, Common Mouse-ear, Meadowsweet joining a cast of wet grassland regulars.

Common Fleabane's also listed, curiously. Not one you see much around these parts, though I did have it once last year.

I definitely need to have a browse of aquatic communities before I get much further down the line, too.