Botanising Day on Holy Island

[ChrisB]

I went with a group over to Holy Island today to look for wild flowers.  We saw many that are expected, such as Armeria maritima - I've never seen so many in one place before, literally a sea of armeria greeted us as we came off the causeway - but also plants I had no idea were growing wild over there.  Here are a few pictures, mostly orchids because that was what we really went to see. 

Conopodium-majus-corallorhiza trifida
 Dactylohriza-incarnata-
 Dactylohriza-purpurella1
 Dactylohriza-purpurella2-
 Epipactis-palustris-in-bud-jpg
 Thymus-polytrichus

[Carlo]

Chris,

A search gets me this:

Holy Island or Holy Isle may refer to:

    * Inish Cealtra, near Mountshannon on the west shore of Lough Derg, Ireland.
    * Lindisfarne, North-east England, home of a medieval monastery.
    * Holy Island, Anglesey, in North-west Wales, site of the port of Holyhead.
    * Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde, off the Isle of Arran, in Scotland. Although in Scotland it is south of the English "Holy Island" of Lindisfarne.
    * Holy Island (Massachusetts), an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.


Given the plants I'd say Massachusetts is not in the running so WHICH is it?

[ChrisB]

So sorry, Carlo, its Lindisfarne, Northumberland, England (but only just)

[Carlo]

Not a problem...but it was interesting to learn that there are so many Holy Islands within spitting distance of each other...will we see more of your trip?

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely for me to see these Chris. Before we moved to where we are now, our home/nursery was called Lindisfarne so of course we went to Holy Island when we were in the UK in 1993. I loved it, so quiet and wide to the sky, compared with all the rest of the UK and ALMOST NO TOURISTS, especially when the tide was up and the causeway impassable. We were there for 3 days and walked right around the island several times before spending the evenings with locals in the pub. At that time the only farm on the island was managed by a New Zealander. We felt right at home there. I remember things like Anagallis tenella, the orchids, armerias, many others and of course the castle, the priory, the castle garden that Gertrude Jekyll designed and so many beautiful buildings. If you have more pictures, please post them.

[Stephenb]

Are you sure the first one is Conopodium? - that's an umbellifer, the Pignut

[ChrisB]

Stephen - its the Coral root orchid, (corallorhiza trifida) sorry, read the name wrong from the list, just shows how much I know about them lol, so thanks for the correction!!!

I'm no expert on orchids, that's for sure, but it sure was interesting.  Very hard to spot amongst all the Salix, grasses etc, but our guide did find it for us.

We did also see, though it was fenced off and not yet in bloom, Epipactis sancta, the Lindisfarne Helleborine, so a picture was out of the question.  I may go back to see it in bloom.  She said the area would be covered in pink when the Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) flowers later this month.  Worth a trip back.  Its only 45 minutes from here by car...

Lesley - if you ever get back over here, Sue Gill and myself live quite near Holy Island so you'd have to spend a little time with us too.... but you are so right, the peacefulness of the island is truly amazing and there are rather more tourists going there now than in 1993, but they leave before the tide comes in then, if you stay on the island, it is once again very peaceful.  Even with the increased numbers visiting, it is still rather quiet in comparison with the mainland, you do hear a few cars now and again, but on the whole its just you, the sea and the sand.  Magic place.  But the wild flowers are super too, lots have to be searched for on all fours.  I only photographed the plants that were relatively easy to do, as my wee camera can't cope with tiny things in strong light.  Managed a few of the armerias mind, I have a very special interest in those.  There was a man made gully about three feet wide to drain one area near the car park on the north side of the island, and armeria maritima was growing studiously close to the edge, but never in the gully itself, therefore forming a long straight border right alongside it.  Yet on the other side of the road, it was blooming in an area that was clearly wet all of the time.  Most interesting how it didn't grow up in the dunes either, yet when we went to the other side of the island, near the priory, there it was growing down the cliff face.  I know there will be reasons for this, but they evade me at the moment....