Highland Saxifrage BSBI SCOTTISH NEWSLETTER Number 26 Spring 2004 CONTENTS Editorial 2 Chairman's Remarks 3 BSBI Committee for Scotland 4 Scottish Annual Meeting 5 Loss of Scarce Species at Locality Scale 13 Yew trees at Crathes 16 Raasay- 2003 Update 19 Concern about a Crassula 20 Pontic-blue sowthistle- an addendum 21 Salix udensis 24 Draft Minutes of 2003 AGM 26 Inverlael to Seana Bhraigh and back 29 Scottish Field Meetings 2004 34 Botany notes, Moray 2003 34 SNH Publications 35 1 Editorial Chairman's Remarks, 2004 RICHARD PANKHURST Those who comment, seem to appreciate the mixture of factual information, de­ The BSBI Scottish Committee has been especially busy during the last year both tailed articles and the more light-hearted items published in our BSBI Scottish with the Local Change surveys and with various consultations over conservation Newsletter. legislation for Scotland. An addition this year is the inclusion of the draft Minutes of the Annual General Our field meetings in 2003 concentrated on mapping for Local Change, and eight Meeting of the BSBI Membership in Scotland. Reasons for this include the facts meetings took place (thought to be a record number!). In general there has been that thereby members who were unable to attend can be informed of what is an enthusiastic response from our recorders and members and we are reasonably taking place in Scotland, that it will provide an opportunity to study the minutes confident that, after the field meetings that are planned for 2004, we will get before hand and bring any suggested amendments to the next AGM and that it good coverage. Typically, when revisting a tetrad surveyed during the Monitor­ will save time by obviating the necessity of having them read. ing Scheme about 15 years ago, and following the same itinerary, about two- thirds of the old records are quickly refound, along with about 10% of com­ We are grateful, once again, to Mrs JM Millar for providing the front cover il­ pletely new records. Most of the new records seem to be from additional habi­ lustration. Highland Saxifrage (Saxifraga rivularis) was chosen to complement tats not surveyed the first time round. If after Local Change has been completed, the article by Gordon Rothero. It was done partly from slides taken by one of one might be wondering what to do next, the compilation of Rare Plant Registers the editors, but from the relative ease of access of the Cairngorms, rather than for each vice-county is suggested. the strenuous effort required in Easter and Wester Ross! In response to new nature conservation legislation we pressed for better botanical Local Change— the repeat of the 1987-88 BSBI Monitoring Scheme, is men­ citations for SSSIs and for assurance that SSSIs would not be lost. We supported tioned here and there in this Newsletter, but we are surprised not to have re­ continuation of schemes in the Environmentally Sensitive Areas and requested ceived any formal articles relating to the survey. We suggest that readers give stronger wording about Local Authority responsibilities in the Scottish Biodiver­ consideration to submitting comparisons between 1987-8 and 2003-4 for the sity Strategy. The Access code accompanying the new Access Bill clarifies the next issue. right of individuals to undertake surveys. For this issue, all material was submitted on disc, which is most helpful, al­ Several recorders were involved with Scottish Natural Heritage in contract work though when this facility is not available, we are prepared to receive typed for Site Condition Monitoring on SSSIs. The appointment of a Scottish BSBI copy. coordinator later this year, I am reliably informed, is a strong possibility. Three recorders retired this year; Peter Wortham for E. Ross, Richard Thomas Peter Macpherson Allan Stirling for Mid Perth and Kathy Fallowfield for S. Aberdeen. They have all put in many "Ben Alder" 17 Austen Road years of effort and the Society is most grateful. Gordon Rothero spent quite a 15 Lubnaig Road Jordanhill while organising replacements for them. There is a growing precedent for hav­ Glasgow Glasgow ing more than one recorder per vice-county, especially in the large and remote G43 2RY G13 1SJ highland and island areas, as already in Mid Perth and the Outer Hebrides. We would like to hear from ambitious botanical folk, perhaps living further south, where there are more botanists than recorderships, and who visit Scotland as summer migrants. The 2003 Annual Meeting took place in the University of Glasgow on November 1st. A talk on climate change and its possible effect on the vegetation of Scotland 2 3 was given by Noranne Ellis of the SNH. Stepping down from the committee Scottish Annual Meeting 2003 EDNA STEWART were Jim Macintosh, organiser of field meetings, and Edna Stewart, organiser of our annual meetings, and we record our grateful thanks to both of them. Gordon Rothero also stepped down as Chairman after 4 years of service, and we are most Introduction grateful to him for all his efforts. Now its my turn! The Scottish Annual Meeting of 2003 was held in the Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow. Although there were fewer exhibitors, the exhibits BSBI Committee for Scotland seemed to occupy as much space as usual. We were disappointed that Summer- field Books were unable to be present with their usual tempting range of botani­ The following is the composition of the Committee from November 2003 to No­ cal books including BSBI publications. Our speaker in the afternoon was No­ vember 2004 ranne Ellis who gave a veiy topical talk on the impacts of climate change on Scotland's flora. Chairman - Richard Pankhurst; Vice-Chairman - vacant; Secretary & Treasurer - The evening meal was held in the University's College Club, followed by an en­ Chris Miles; Field Meetings Secretary - Jackie Muscott; Minutes Secretary - joyable slide show from four contributors — have most people stopped taking col­ Mark Watson; Exhibition Secretary - Gordon Rothero ; Members of Committee - our transparencies? Phil Lusby, Ian Strachan, Ian Green, Stephen Bungard. Representing SNH - Lynne Farrell. Scottish VC Recorders Meeting At the AGM on 6 November 2004, Gordon Rothero, Phil Lusby and Ian 43 members attended: 32 were Scottish VC Recorders, covering 30VCs. Strachan retire, the last named being eligible for re-election. Nominations for the Gordon Rothero welcomed new Recorders: committee vacancies, signed by two members of the Society normally resident in, VC 102 Malcolm Ogilvie or recorders for, a vice-county in Scotland and with written consent of the candi­ VC 106 Brian and Barbara Ballinger date, who must also qualify as above, should reach the undernoted at Braeside, VC 104 Stephen Bungard joint with Catriona Murray Boreland, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire. DG11 2LL by 30 September 2004. VC 105 James Fenton joint with Douglas Henderson. C Miles - Hon Secretary David Pearman spoke about the post of Scottish Officer. SNH would pay half the cost and BSBI the rest. The post would be for three years. The job would in­ volve helping with monitoring for specific plants, the Threatened Plants Data Base and encouraging new members. The post is unlikely to be in place until 2005. Local Change - Bob Ellis has been appointed to take Pete Selby's place. How­ ever for the present data should be sent to Alex Lockton and Martin Rand on the Mapmate web site. Eight field meetings had taken place in 2003 for Local Change. He then mentioned puzzling records for Crepis mollis. There are old records but few new ones. It is found around the Borders. There was a discussion -it was thought that it could be overlooked - it is very like a hawkweed but pappus is pure white. Gordon Rothero spoke about Site Condition monitoring, for which BSBI has a contract with SNH. However information supplied by SNH to BSBI surveyors 4 5 does not tie up with information which VC Recorders have. He also talked about Local Record Centres. Some of their records are dubious. We should be 40-60% of the temperature variations since 1850 having an input. The LBAP plan should be the way forward. The IPCC have shown that greenhouse gases have been responsible for the re­ cent change in the atmosphere's temperature. Greenhouse gases include carbon Ken Butler said there was a need for instructions for BSBI members to allow dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These are chemicals in the atmosphere them to co-ordinate with Recorders. which hold the heat that radiates from the planet's surface once it is heated by the sun. IPCC have produced scenarios of the future climates based on estimates Lecture of varying levels of future greenhouse gas emissions. The UK's Climate Impacts programme (which links to the work of the IPCC) has described seasonal and Climate Change Impacts on Scotland's Flora Dr Noranne Ellis annual changes in temperature and precipitation for the UK. Interestingly, the temperature rises are expected to go beyond the maximum temperatures that Scotland experienced at the end of the last Ice Age. Dr Ellis is an adviser for Scottish Natural Heritage, advising on issues dealing For a 1 C rise in annual temperature, climate space for individual species is ex­ with the impact of climate change, air pollution and chemicals in the environ­ pected to shift north by 250-400 kilometres and uphill by 200-275 metres. This ment on habitats and species. is the distance from Glasgow to north of Inverness or to Orkney. Therefore for an increase of 1.5-2 C by 2050s (as expected in various scenarios), this would Her talk outlined the rapid fluctuations at the end of the last Ice Age across mean that northern limits of southern spec ies would be at the north coast of Scotland (around 10,000 years before present).