I attended the Scottish Annual Meeting of BSBI and BSS on 5 November at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and provide a short review hastily scribbled.
Professor Mary Gibby, Director of Science RBGE extended a warm welcome to all and officially opened the conference. She also advised that the RBGE was in the midst of a risk assessment on the potential of the garden’s plants to become non-native invasive species. The assessment is in response to Scottish legislation which will make it an offence to release or ‘cause to grow’ any non-native plant in the wild.
Chris Miles (Scottish Chairman, BSBI) also extended a welcome and provided a short review of the year and gave details of notable recent findings of Irish Lady’s Tresses and Salt-marsh sedge near Ardnamurchan lighthouse. Least white orchid, sadly, did not put in a re-appearance this year.
Ian Bonner (BSBI President) then offered his welcome to meeting participants.
Barbara Sumner gave an interesting talk on the history of the Botanical Society of Scotland (which until 1991 had been the Botanical Society of Edinburgh). The Society was founded on 8 February 1836 in Dundas Street, Edinburgh and thus had now achieved its 175th anniversary. There is a plaque in Dundas Street. Her talk was further enlivened by a display of archival material well displayed in the foyer to the RBGE library. (If you are in Edinburgh I do recommend a visitation.)
Robin Payne, Vascular Plant Specialist Team Leader, SNH, then gave an informative overview of recent changes to the law on non-native species. This talk picked up on the concerns expressed by Mary Gibby. He explained that the recent Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 amends the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (and in particular clause 14 of that Act) and in so doing provides greater definition in respect of the release on non-native flora and fauna to the natural environment.
The new Act defines the term non-native plant as being a plant moved to a location by human activity, whether intentional or otherwise. The Act also states that non-native refers to native plants which have been moved outwith their natural range by human activity. Robin advised that this could relate to any plant subsequent to the last ice age.
The new Act also defines wild land as being land other than cropping land, pasture, settlements or public and private gardens.
As a consequence of the new Act every person in Scotland has a legal duty not to plant or 'cause to grow' in the wild any non-native plant. The ‘cause to grow’ condition-statement is significant. This means that if a gardener does not take reasonable steps to prevent inappropriate seed dispersal then he could be prosecuted for causing a non-native plant to grow in the wild. A good example is the spread of cotoneaster by birds. Accordingly, public gardens and institutions are now assessing the risk of growing particular species of plants. As Robin advised, the powers of SNH in respect of non-native plants are quite draconian in that they have the right of access to private land and can recover costs of removing non-native species from those who are convicted of either planting those species or (and more likely) causing to grow (whether inadvertently or not).
As one might imagine, the issue generated a lot of questions
[Ed. I bet it did, see you in prison soon!] of which only a few could be taken during the conference proceedings. Many expressed support for the intention to curb the potential for invasive non-native species but wondered whether gardeners would in the future not grow certain plants.
Next up was
Bob Ellis, BSBI Volunteers’ Officer who spoke on rare plant registers. He advised us that seven registers had been published on the BSBI website and that in Wales they were pulling together national rare and threatened plant registers. He voiced the opinion that such registers for Scotland might be a good thing.
Angus Hannah, acting Scottish BSBI Officer, then read a long statement of the past year – this might have been better delivered as a paper to read at leisure.
After a good lunch and a thorough exploration of Summerfield Books we reconvened to listen to
Jonny Hughes, SWT Conservation Director who provided a short talk on the Botanic Gems of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He focused on three initiatives. The first being the Flying Flock. This is a flock of some 400 Shetland/Cheviots which are placed to Texel pups (yes, that’s what he said and wrote on his slide – it was pointed out that at future talks he may wish to correctly refer to male sheep as tups or rams!) that are then carted across the country to improve floristic communities through their grazing. The flock had been a great success and consequently a number of sites had been reclassified from unfavourable to recovering. The SWT now has ambitions to use Shetland cattle on other sites.
Jonny then spoke about the work at the Rahoy Hills reserve to improve the opportunities for
Sedum villosa which had been struggling. Habitat improvement and various management regimes had dramatically improved the number of flower spikes in the recent two years – though he did think that the cold winters might have had a positive effect. The plant has threatened status and is now subject of a great deal of research.
Jonny then moved onto the work being undertaken (or rather, which had not been undertaken) on
Primula scotica. Since 2000 the SWT has not been monitoring the populations of this endemic on its reserves due to a lack of funding
(Ed. But surely local volunteers could have done something?). The lack of work is disappointing since SWT reserves used to hold the largest concentrations of this species. Between the years 1991-2000 between 400-650 flowering pikes were being produced annually (and of course many more rosettes). He did advise that before the year 2000 analysis had suggested that heavy grazing from September to the first hardest frosts made a major difference to plant viability, in that the plant did not like any competition. Jonny stated that subject to funding a structured monitoring programme will be initiated soon.
The next speaker was
Andy Scobie, the Project Officer for the Cairngorms Rare Plans Partnership. This was a great talk, well illustrated and put across with genuine enthusiasm and a light mantle of scholarship. If you get a chance to go to one of his talks then don’t throw it. Andy gave an entertaining overview of the plants of the Cairngorms and then focussed on the practical work he is doing on
Twinflower, Small Cow-wheat, Lesser Butterfly-orchid and
Intermediate Wintergreen. He told us of the practical work he and volunteers are doing to establish distribution and status, to identify constraints and to implement appropriate management regimes.
Twinflower, as many will know, grows in pine woods (and on open moorland). It is, however, in decline because of fragmentation of populations. Heavy grazing by deer or competition from rank heather, or close canopy pine woods are all factors which have a negative impact. The plant does not recover from muirburn because of its surface stolans. Andy has established that 80% of plants are not setting seed because 80% of patches consist of only one clone. A further 15% of patches have only two clones present. He has identified that cross-pollination between clones increases seed production ten-fold and therefore is working on translocating clones in order to make populations viable for the long term. It appears that to be truly viable at least five clones are required.
Andy described in fascinating detail the work he and volunteers are undertaking on other species. He advised that Intermediate wintergreen survived muirburn well because its stolens were some depth below the soil and that the plant also did well in disturbed ground. It cannot cope with rank vegetation. The Lesser Butterfly-orchid seemed to react well to being in locations that are grazed, but the plant quickly disappeared under any tree/shrub canopy. As for Small Cow-wheat, well that’s a hemi-parasite often found in tree-lined ravines – however those ravines are becoming fewer and more isolated. Genetic diversity is extremely poor. The plant produces large seeds which are adapted for dispersal by wood ants – however small woods mean few ants which means little or no dispersal!
I haven’t done justice to Andy’s talks. You can get more information from (or volunteer to assist with) the Cairngorm Rare Plants Project, c/o SNH, Achantoul, Avimore, PH22 1QD or email
a.scobie@abdn.ac.ukAfter Andy’s talks there was an opportunity to look again at the many displays/exhibits:
Geoffrey Halliday produced a good investigation of the spread of
Sanvitalia procumbens, a central American species, often sold in late spring by garden centres for hanging baskets which has now been found growing in urban pavements.
[Ed. ‘cause to grow’ prosecutions to follow!].Chris Miles presented some recent pressed finds in Dumfriesshire including
Gentianella campestris which had been refound on an old site after 110 years.
Peter Macpherson presented details on the spread of seashore plants to roadsides in Lanarkshire (an inland county) and their spread since the late 1980s, for instance Danish Scurveygrass first sighted in 1989 at one location was now recorded within 114 x 1km squares. Peter also presented a number of newspaper ‘
bloopers’ with a articles about rare orchids which had stopped various infrastructure works when in fact the plants as photographed were Self-heal, Hedge Woundwort or gentians! Another article stated that Japanese Knotweed had now reached Glasgow (when in fact it had been known outside gardens since 1930). The best was a recent article which advised that Bird’s –foot Trefoil and Red Clover were rare.
Luke Gaskell provided details of new and recent plants in Peeblesshire and
Rod Corner presented the same in respect of Roxburgh and Selkirkshire including
Cotula squalida from New Zealand
[Ed. can we prosecute New Zealanders for cause to grow?]which is appear right across the country. Others provided records for Fife & Kinross, Midlothian, east Perthshire, and Berwickshire.
Leslie Tucker gave details of a new upland willow hybrid
Salix x luiensis LCN Tucker. Which he had found at Dal Righ, in mid Perthshire.
Theo Loizou presented a review of climate change impacts on upland species. His research suggests that in the past 25 years tre hads been a marked decline of certain species due to higher temperatures. He had originally thought that plant species would lag behind faunal changes but he now assumes that this is not the case.
Lynne Farrell provided a god overview of the distribution and ecology of
Sedum villosum on Mull and
Brian Ballinger gave a fascinating account of the flora of northern railway stations where he noted 227 vascular plant species including
Orobanche minor and
Crassula tillaea. Our trains are good at moving plants across the country – Oxford Ragwort springs to mind
[Ed. perhaps greater control will need to be exercised otherwise they might be prosecuted under ‘cause to grow’]After some more book buying -Summerfield Books must have had the argest displayof botanicla books for sale every seen in Scotland - we reconved for the final lecture which was given by Professor
Richard Gornall on
Evolution in the genus Saxifraga – observations from Scotland to Qinghai. As befits a university lecturer Richard gave a polished, relaxed almost effortless presentation. This was a great talk and one ideally suited to, for instance, an SRGC discussion weekend.
He covered a lot of ground. He explained that there were 460 species (in 15 section) and that they were vegetatively diverse though it was often claimed that saxifrages had a uniform floral morphology of K5, C5, A10 G(2) – but as always there were exceptions! Ten sections are found in Europe and six in Sino-himalaya. Though the number of species in Europe and Sino-himalaya are roughly equal, about 200 each, most of the Sino-himalaya species belong to a single section and this is a reflection of the relatively young age of the Himalayas and accordingly a shorter time period for speciation to occur.
Richard advised that many researchers had, on morphological grounds, stated that the genus should be split into different genera. It was clear when one saw mats, cushions, basal rosettes and individual rosettes that there was considerable variation.
Richard then took us out to the fields of Tibet. He stated that he found it hard to reconcile the two dimensional herbarium species that he had been studying with the three dimensional field specimens and often found himself doubting that certain species could possibly be those which he had studied
[Ed. And he is the authority on Saxifrages - what hope for the rest of us?! 
] He advised that it was not until one was out in the field that one could truly appreciate the nature of species, for instance the dioecious nature of S
. tibetica or the pollination need of
S.consanguinea (which is pollinated by wasps) or
S. unguiculata (by flies). He then gave us an introduction to reproductive isolation based on pollination differences.
The lecture then moved onto taxonomic evidence and phylogenetic classification which I found extremely interesting. The terms when first used appear a little daunting – monophyletic, synapomorphy, paraphyletic, false synapomorphy, homoplasy, symplesiomorphy, ancestral conditions – but in essence explain fairly straightforward concepts.
[Ed. come again?]My notes also cover phylogeny reconstruction, neighbour-joining and maximum parsimony
.[Ed. I bet they did] I know it sounds very scientific
[Ed. really?]however Richard put it across in understandable terms.
He then advised that his recent work on the genus had shown, using morphological characteristics, that
S. stellaris is actually a sister to
Chrysosplenium and
Peltoboykina and ought to be elevated to genus
Micranthes (and yes more nomenclature change are on the way!
[Ed. I think I'll get my coat!] ).
Micranthes are
micranthes if there are no leaves on the stem if the seeds have longitudinal ribs (which can be seen with a 20x hand-lens) and the flower carpels are free to well-below half-way (whereas London Pride group saxifrages, which can share some of the above characteristics, are not free beyond half-way). He advised that
Micranthes was a good example of parallel evolution.
To wrap up we were shown
S. minutissima (which has no petals and is less than the size of 5p) and which was described only last year.
By using the genus as a backdrop Richard was able to give us a primer on plant taxonomy in an interesting and stimulating manner and we learned along the way about field botany and Chinese railways. A good talk which lasted 1 ¼ hours but which never flagged.
Next year the event is to be held in Battleby, Stirlingshire in November.
On 20/21 September 2012 at RBGE there will be a short conference entitle “A Great Leap Forward –Botanical Recording since 1960”
One other thing I picked up on the day was that
www.bioimages.org.uk is a good resource site for flora/fauna of the UK.
