Kirkcudbrightshire Botany Group at Mersehead, 26th July 2024
A group of 12 of us, including staff and volunteers from the RSPB, gathered in the Mersehead car park on a lovely sunny morning.
We were fortunate to be allowed access off the public path and the RSPB Warden Rowena Chambers suggested that our first stop should be an area of fenced upper merse grassland west of Rainbow Lane, which was currently ungrazed. This proved to have a dazzling display of purple Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca, yellow Autumn Hawkbit Scorzoneroides autumnalis, white Parsley Water-dropwort Oenanthe lachenalii and Red Clover Trifolium pratense.
As we walked southwest towards the shore, the sward contained an increasing proportion of saltmarsh plants including Sea Club-rush Bolboschoenus maritimus, Sea Plantain Plantago maritima, Lesser Sea-spurrey Spergularia marina, Sea Arrowgrass Triglochin maritima, Saltmarsh Rush Juncus gerardii, Sea Rush J. maritimus, Sea Aster Tripolium pannonicum, Grass-leaved Orache Atriplex littoralis and Common Sea-lavender Limonium vulgare. There were several patches of Slender Spike-rush Eleocharis uniglumis with its characteristic lop-sided ‘hockey-stick’ head.
Nick guided us safely out through the gate in the electric fence, and past a group of rather curious cattle, back to the footpath leading to the dunes. We paused on the way to look at a patch of Saltmarsh Flat-sedge Blysmus rufus by the path side.
The dunes were an ideal spot for lunch protected from the stiff onshore breeze and we sat among tall stems of Common Ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris and tiny plants of the beautiful Wild Pansy Viola tricolor. Afterwards we walked west through the dunes which are dominated by Marram Ammophila arenaria with Lyme-grass Leymus arenarius in the looser sand on the front edge. We recorded Sand Sedge Carex arenaria, Sea Spurge Euphorbia paralias, Common Centaury Centarium erythraea, Sea-holly Eryngium maritimum, Common Restharrow Ononis repens, Hare’s-foot Clover Trifolium arvense and a single well-grown plant of Carline Thistle Carlina vulgaris.
Time was racing by, and while we would have liked to stay longer recording in the dunes and on the foreshore, we were particularly keen to check for the Brackish Water-crowfoot Ranunculus baudotii which had last been recorded on the other side of Rainbow Lane by Olga Stewart in 1992. We weren’t certain that suitable habitat for this still existed, although Rowena had seen a Water-crowfoot recently, so this sounded promising. We were therefore delighted when we were led by the RSPB members of the group to a shallow pool on which there were several clumps of flowering white Water-crowfoot. Careful checking of a specimen confirmed that it was indeed the Brackish Water-crowfoot. One of the key characters is the parallel-sided intermediate leaf type. This is one of the Rare Plant Register species in Kirkcudbrightshire, so it was excellent to re-find it and update a record from over 30 years ago.
In the same pool were Water-purslane Lythrum portula and Small Pondweed Potamogeton berchtoldii, both freshwater plants, so the pool appeared to be freshwater rather than brackish. Later consultation with BSBI referee Richard Lansdown established that, despite its name, R. baudotii is not found exclusively in brackish conditions.
As we walked away from the pool Freya spotted a tiny Natterjack Epidalea calamita toadlet, a real highlight of the day. The last notable plant was Lesser Marshwort Apium inundatum amongst the wet grassland.
This was an extremely productive and enjoyable visit to Mersehead and we are very grateful to Rowena and her staff and volunteers for hosting our visit. We successfully recorded parts of three monads: NX9155, NX9156 and NX9256.
Many thanks too to all the members of the botany group who attended, for their observations and their company.
Sarah White
