Managing for Scotland's Mountain Plants

Managing for Scotland’s mountain plants The arctic-alpine world of Scotland Climb to the highest summits and ridges of the Scottish hills and you come to more than a feeling of achievement or a better view. You are in a different world, high above the enclosed fields and settled glens, and above the tree line. This is a quiet Meavaig ©Laurie Campbell ©Laurie Meavaig world, where the vegetation is no more than a thin skin of life over the ancient eroded bones of the hills. It is silent apart from the wind, the piping calls of birds, Land management recommendations and the sound of running water – a for mountain plants – a summary special world with its own qualities of wilderness. Maintain light grazing regimes Too much grazing limits the growth of these It is also home to a wide range of plants and causes soil erosion. arctic-alpine mountain plants. Do not burn This leaflet provides guidance Mountain plants grow slowly and cannot recover for land managers on looking from burning. after the mountain habitat for these species. Protect against physical damage Maintain footpaths; direct foot and bike traffic; site developments appropriately. 2 Managing for Scotland’s mountain plants 3 Mountain species High on mountains, the annual growing season is too short and the climate and soils too inhospitable for trees and many shrubs. For mountain plants, however, it’s a different story. Because they are slow-growing, they cannot always compete at lower altitude with faster-growing plants for light and space, but they thrive on the high hills. Arctic-alpine communities are made up of... Dwarf shrubs such as heather (Calluna vulgaris) and blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). ©Alison Averis Grasses such as mat-grass Moss campion (Silene acaulis) (Nardus stricta) and tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa). The following species are noticeable Least willow (Salix herbacea) The smallest of our willows, this Sedges such as stiff sedge indicators that you are above the tree diminutive creeping shrub is (Carex bigelowii). line and in the ‘montane zone’: barely taller than the mountain Mosses, liverworts and lichens, which Heather (Calluna vulgaris) mosses it grows amongst. The are more common and conspicuous in With its prostrate growth form – where bright green, shining leaves grow these communities than in most other the shoots grow in a thin, wind-pruned crowded together on dark, wiry types of vegetation. Some arctic-alpine layer over the ground rather than stems. The catkins are conspicuous vegetation consists of mats and patches as upright little bushes – heather is in late spring, as are the masses of of these plants and fungi with a mere one of the most obvious indicators of fluffy seeds after midsummer. sprinkling of flowers. arctic-alpine (montane) vegetation. Spiked woodrush (Luzula spicata) Alpine clubmoss The grass-like clumps of this species (Diphasiastrum alpinum) grow in open gravelly places and ©Alison Averis With its pale blue-green, branching, although the leaves themselves are Heather (Calluna vulgaris) flattened shoots creeping among the quite inconspicuous, the dark, drooping dwarfed heather and mosses, this is one flower heads are not hard to spot. of the first characteristic arctic-alpine Moss campion (Silene acaulis) Many of the species growing on the peaks and ridges are equally at home species you will notice as you reach the Moss campion isn’t common throughout the uplands and upland margins; others are more specialised. As you upper parts of a hill. everywhere, except in the far northwest climb a hill, for example, notice the vegetation around you becoming shorter and Stiff sedge (Carex bigelowii) and on richer rocks such as the sparser. Trees and shrubs give way to heather moorland, blanket bogs and wet, This sedge grows in short, grey-green mica-schists of Perthshire, but it is a heathy mixtures of deer grass (Trichophorum germanicum) and purple moor-grass tufts and clumps, and has distinctive distinctive and easily recognised plant (Molinia caerulea). With increasing altitude, heaths are replaced by grasslands and tight, black flowering heads at the top with its neat cushions of bright green, finally you’ll find yourself walking on a springy mat of dwarf heather or blaeberry, of stiff, upright stems. narrow leaves and brilliant pink flowers or with a soft carpet of mosses or lichens under your boots. in late spring and early summer. 4 Managing for Scotland’s mountain plants 5 Montane grasslands and sedge or rush swards In Scotland, we’re used to regarding grassy hills as less natural or less valuable for nature conservation than heathery ones, seeing the grass swards as evidence of excessive burning and hard grazing. At low to moderate altitudes, this is almost always true but above the tree line, some grasslands are near-natural communities, occurring where the climate is too severe or the winter snow-lie is too prolonged for dwarf shrubs to be able to thrive. Look out for: • Mat-grass (Nardus stricta) forming pale, tussocky swards on ©Deborah Long/Plantlife Long/Plantlife ©Deborah high slopes, in hollows and gullies and on plateaux where snow Fir clubmoss (Huperzia selago), crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) and heather (Calluna vulgaris) lies late in spring. • Tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa), the rich bright green swards of which clothe the steep back walls and upper Six key plant communities found slopes of sheltered corries. It also marks out places where snow on Scotland’s mountains are: lies late in spring and which are irrigated by the water from melting snow or dripping cliffs. Montane dwarf-shrub heath • Stiff sedge (Carex bigelowii) growing in damp montane soils. • Three-leaved rush (Juncus trifidus) on exposed summits and With increasing altitude and exposure, plants such as heather and rocky ridges and plateaux. blaeberry diminish in size, and on high, wind-exposed summits and ridges, they form a sward barely 5cm high. Among the creeping Where the underlying rocks are rich in calcium, you can find alpine shoots of heather, blaeberry and crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), grasslands with a dazzlingly rich array of species, including moss you’ll find an array of small plants such as stiff sedge (Carex campion (Silene acaulis), alpine lady’s mantle (Alchemilla alpina), bigelowii), alpine clubmoss (Diphasiastrum alpinum), mountain mossy cyphel (Minuartia sedoides), alpine bistort (Persicaria everlasting (Antennaria dioica), dwarf azalea (Kalmia procumbens) vivipara), alpine meadow-rue (Thalictrum alpinum) and, more locally, and arctic bearberry (Arctostaphylos alpinus). mountain avens (Dryas octopetala) growing in a short, velvety-green sward of grasses and sedges. Montane blanket bog Blanket bogs on the high ground look quite different from those of lower ground. They have a shorter, greener sward, with the place of heather taken by blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), bog bilberry Montane moss heaths (Vaccinium uliginosum) and crowberry (Empetrum nigrum). Above the altitudinal limit of dwarf shrubs, the Many of them also have a thick sprinkling of cloudberry (Rubus high ridges, summits and plateaux are clothed chamaemorus) with its distinctive rounded leaves, attractive with a soft grey blanket of the woolly fringe-moss white flowers and spikes of orange berries in late summer. (Racomitrium lanuginosum) dotted with small Under the flowering plants is a richly coloured quilt of large, plants such as blaeberry, stiff sedge and least conspicuous mosses such as Sphagnum capillifolium, willow. Known as Racomitrium heath, this type Rhytidiadelphus loreus, Hylocomium splendens and of vegetation is widespread in Scotland and also Pleurozium schreberi. The uncommon dwarf birch (Betula on the high hills of England, Wales and Ireland. nana) is a local rarity in this type of vegetation. It is exceptionally rare in the rest of the world. 6 Managing for Scotland’s mountain plants 7 Snow-beds Mires and springs Plant communities of snow-beds, Upland springs are distinctive, with bright cushions of mosses and the hollows and gullies where snow liverworts at the source of the water. The most common plants are accumulates each winter and lies long starry saxifrage (Saxifraga stellaris), blinks (Montia fontana), the into spring, are among the greatest mosses Philonotis fontana and Dicranella palustris, and the liverwort treasures of the Scottish hills. They Scapania undulata. are extraordinarily varied and diverse Mires are tracts of vegetation that mark out the places where water although to the casual eye, they flows on or just below the surface of the ground. Among the most appear to be no more than bare ground common and conspicuous species here are sedges such as Carex with a thin sprinkling of flowering nigra, C. curta and C. rostrata. They grow through a soft and spongy plants, sedges and grasses in a broken carpet of mosses including some Sphagnum species. carpet of mosses and liverworts. ©Alison Averis The vegetation in the longest lying Sibbaldia (Sibbaldia procumbens) snow-beds may be free of snow for only six weeks each year, so the plants that Other plants to look out for include: grow there have to make the best use Least willow (Salix herbacea), of every minute of their brief growing a small creeping willow. season. Even as the snow withdraws, the leaves of the characteristic mosses and Fir clubmoss (Huperzia selago), a liverworts unfurl in a dazzling array of tufted upright plant that looks a bit green and gold. Within days, there’s a like a mini conifer. display of capsules on hair-like stems, Starry saxifrage (Saxifraga stellaris), the annual miracle of renewed life in with its 5-10 white flowers on a spike this most challenging of habitats. up to 20cm tall. There is enormous diversity here, Heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile), too. A brief look through a hand lens a creeping bedstraw with tiny or through the wrong end of a pair white flowers. of binoculars reveals the beautifully Sibbaldia (Sibbaldia procumbens), intricate mixtures of tiny tufts and a very rare, small flowering plant with creeping shoots of mosses and greenish-yellow flowers.

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