We are Plantlife Discover Plantlife is the charity that speaks up for ’s wild flowers, plants and fungi. From the open spaces of our nature reserves to the corridors of Holyrood, Wild flower walks Important Plant Area we’re here to raise their profile, to celebrate their A moss-clad walk through Scotland’s beauty, and to protect their future. temperate rainforest This hilly walk takes you through oak, and Scotland’s countryside birch woodland, home to a rich diversity of miniature Save it with flowers plants covering the branches, trees and boulders. It is these lichens, mosses and liverworts that make Scotland’s Celtic rainforest internationally important. Where to start www.plantlife.org.uk Start from the Glen Nant Forestry Commission car park, just off the B845 between and Plantlife Scotland Kilchrenan (grid reference NN019272). This is accessed Balallan House, Allan Park, Stirling, FK8 2QG by crossing a small bridge over the River Nant. Tel: 01786 478509/479382 Email: [email protected] Distance Patron: Duke of Rothesay 1.6 miles, there and back. Allow 1½ hours. Plantlife is a charitable company limited by guarantee, Company No.3166339. Registered in and Wales, Charity No.1059559. Registered in Scotland, Charity No. SCO38951. Walk grade Plantlife, 14 Rollestone Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 1DX, UK A strenuous walk along forest road and narrow Tel: 01722 342730 gravel paths, including footbridges. The trail can be ©Plantlife January 2016 slippery in places, especially in wet weather, so sturdy ISBN: 978-1-910212-25-7 Cover photograph: ©Deborah Long/Plantlife footwear is essential. This walk includes part of the Printed by Acanthus Press, Somerset Forestry Commission’s Ant Trail, which is a 2-mile Design: evansgraphic.co.uk circular route. Refreshments Plantlife Scotland @PlantlifeScot Taynuilt is the nearest village for cafes and restaurants, 3 miles away. Thank you Glen Nant is managed by Forest WC Enterprise Scotland and we would like to thank them for their advice and support The nearest public in producing this guide. Funding was lavatories are in the village provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund The wild plants of Taynuilt. and Scottish Natural Heritage. of Glen Nant A 1.6 mile walk in Celtic rainforest – part of the West Coast Important Plant Area Directions stone staircase and the side of the hill opens out. Look to your right – just off the path you’ll find a birch tree whose Discover 1 Before you leave the car park, take some time to look at trunk is covered with protruding silvery-grey lichen. This is the trunks of the mature trees between the car park and black-eyed Susan. Behind this tree is another, whose trunk the river. Here you’ll find a wonderful array of lichens and is covered with one of the characteristic mosses of the Celtic Glen Nant bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) of all shapes and rainforest – slender mouse-tail. Important Plant Area sizes. Look for the vivid green, leafy tree lungwort. 6 Continue along the track and look out for honeysuckle on 2 Head uphill on the gravelled forest road, continuing over the forest floor and winding itself around the branches of the cattle grid. As you go up the track, look for the small trees in the canopy. hard fern in the bank on the left-hand side. Keep on the track as it passes over a stream and bears left uphill. 7 Head down towards the sound of the stream below and out Around here keep a look out for sessile oak trees, which into a flat area of young birch and sphagnum moss, which are a dominant tree species of Atlantic woodland. can be quite boggy under foot. Cross this flat area and K J 8 continue downhill to the stream. This shady spot is a good 10 I 3 Take a right off the forest track at the Ant Trail waymarker, place to findfoxglove flowering in the summer months. 9 which directs you into the forest and up a small flight of stone steps. The wooded trail heads uphill. Where it 8 Once you’ve crossed over the bridge, stop to look at the initially opens and flattens out, look to the left to see a first, large, multi-stemmed oak tree on your left. Its mossy boulder outcrop with a small oak tree growing trunk is covered with some lovely lichens and bryophytes, 7 out of it. This outcrop is a perfect microhabitat for including the interesting cudbear lichen and some more lichens and bryophytes with mats of the leafy black-eyed Susan. liverwort, western earwort. 9 Turn left following the Ant Trail waymarker, keeping the 4 Continue to follow the woodland trail stream on your left. You will soon come to a second bridge H 6 uphill, passing great views across to – this crosses the same stream again. This shady riverside . After climbing a little area is great for wood sorrel and common dog violet F G further, you’ll then descend into an growing on the forest floor, both flowering in spring. You area of common hazel trees, will also find many moss-clad trees covered with slender 5 E with branches cloaked mouse-tail. in mosses and surrounded by 10 At this point in the trail, you have the choice to either cross wood rush on the second bridge and continue on the Ant Trail, which 4 the ground. eventually returns to the car park via a wide forest road, or retrace your steps to explore more of the Celtic rainforest 3 D 5 Carry on the path and find any species you missed. As you go, keep a look until you reach out for the elusive ghillie dhu. He likes to hang out in small C the top of a nooks and crannies in the roots and trunks of trees, and also among the moss-laden boulders. B 2 Important Plant Areas (IPAs) Glen Nant forms part of the West Coast IPA, which is internationally important for its lichens and bryophyte Key A communities. This is one of the 47 IPAs in Scotland. IPAs are internationally recognised hotspots for wild plants and lichens. For more information and to discover other IPAs to visit go to Wild plants. Descriptions overleaf 1 www.plantlife.org.uk/scotland Walk route Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey licence number 100032779 The plants of Glen Nant I Foxglove This Atlantic woodland is a classic, temperate Digitalis purpurea Celtic rainforest, rich and diverse in plant E Common hazel The latin ‘Digitalis’ means ‘finger-like’, and fungi species, as well as folklore. Corylus avellana so it is not surprising that popular It includes: Our native species of hazel is naturally names for foxglove include ‘fairy a multi-stemmed shrub that can reach fingers’ and ‘fairy gloves’. The spots on the petals are for more than just A up to 10 metres in height, although most Tree lungwort are between 3-5 metres. Hazel (like oak) decoration – they actually help guide Lobaria pulmonaria supports many species of lichens and bees into the flower for pollination. This large leafy lichen, looking like bryophytes on a single branch – look tiny green lungs, is a good indicator closely to see how many different of ancient woodland. See if you can types you can find on one branch. find its orange/red fruiting bodies J Cudbear which produce spores. Ochrolechia tartarea Black-eyed Susan F This lichen is an indicator of ancient woodland, Bunodophoron th th melanocarpum but in the 18 and 19 centuries it was B Hard fern also important in the Scottish textile Blechnum spicant This distinctive, pale grey shrubby industry, producing a purple-coloured lichen is an indicator of ancient dye. The manufacture of the dye took This small, leathery fern has two types of leaves woodland. The black ‘eyes’ of this lichen several weeks to complete, with the or fronds. The fertile fronds stick up straight are actually fruiting bodies, which lichen being boiled then steeped in and are long and narrow with spores on the produce the spores for reproduction. lime and urine before being dried back of them. The sterile fronds, without The main body of the lichen has very and ground into a powder. spores, arch outwards. The fronds are fine branches, reminiscent of coral. rigid to the touch, hence the name. K Common dog violet Viola riviniana C Sessile oak G Slender mouse-tail Quercus petraea Isothecium Historically, the term ‘dog’ was given to myosuroides wild flowers that were unscented and Many of the oaks at Glen Nant were this species is no exception. This is the th This moss is another characteristic coppiced in the 18 century to fuel most common and widespread of the the local Furnace during the species of the Celtic rainforest, found mainly on tree trunks and boulders, violet species, and it flowers from April Industrial Revolution – this is why to June. The ancient Greeks recognised you may find multi-stemmed oak and forming dense mats. On closer inspection, you’ll see its tree-like violets as a symbol of fertility and love, trees around Glen Nant. Oak is the and used them in love potions. classic tree of the Celtic rainforest growth form, unbranched near its base and becoming branched nearer the top. and supports a rich diversity of Ghillie dhu species, including bryophytes, lichens, ferns and fungi. A forest sprite restricted to the west coast forests of Scotland, which they protect D H Honeysuckle fiercely. Ranging in size from 7 inches Western earwort Lonicera periclymenum upwards, they are well-camouflaged with Scapania gracilis When in flower, this plant is highly their clothes of leaves and moss. Look out for One of the most common bryophytes perfumed with trumpet-shaped them hiding in mossy nooks and crannies! on the boulder outcrop by the side flowers from June to August, and They move around a lot, so we have not been of the footpath, this liverwort forms is a great source of nectar for able to pinpoint them on the map. compact mats with small, individual invertebrates. It is a good climber and rounded heads. It is a true oceanic can be found in the branches of trees. resident of the Atlantic woodlands, preferring wet, humid conditions, Illustrations of foxglove, honeysuckle and common dog violet reproduced by permission of Philip’s from Philip’s Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain and and can be found all year round. Northern Europe, Bob Gibbons and Peter Brough, 2008. Remaining illustrations by Andrew Evans ©Plantlife