2021 Reports from Scottish Vice-County Recorders Dumfriesshire (vc72)
Chris Miles
Overall we had a profitable recording year with 10,500 records gathered in 110 monads. In the Moffatdale area 25 monads were visited. Some interesting refinds and new locations for the specialities were recorded. The aim is to complete monad recording for this area in the next year or so and produce a Flora. A summary of some of the botanical highlights are given on the BSBI Dumfriesshire webpage. There were new vice county records for Northern Yellow-cress Rorippa islandica, Diaphanous Hawkweed Hieracium diaphanoides and Stiff-haired Hawkweed, H. lasiophyllum. Among the highlights were two hybrids new to the VC. These are a generic cross of orchid species x Dactylodenia evansii and a hybrid between the two thistles Cirsium heterophyllum and C. palustre (Cirsium x wankelii). There are more details on the former on the poster I showed at the Scottish Botanists Conference in November.
The Dumfriesshire Botany Group managed 10 meetings despite ongoing Covid restrictions and write ups for each of these days can also be seen on the BSBI Dumfriesshire web page. An unusual experience this year apart from the lack of rain on nearly all the meetings was the flyby of a spitfire on the Moffat meeting. Kirkcudbrightshire (vc73)
David Hawker
Despite Covid restrictions, we managed 9 field meetings, mainly in the south of the VC, with 4 dedicated individuals covering a further 40+ monads, most previously un-surveyed. Around 5500 records were submitted this year with County Rare Plant recording forms completed for:Seagrasses Zostera marina & noltii Hairy buttercup Ranunculus sardous Seaside centaury Centaurium littorale Great burnet Sanguisorba officinalis Common meadow-rue Thalictrum flavum Spignel Meum athamanticum Hairy stonecrop Sedum villosum (+SHARPP sheet) Intermediate wintergreen Pyrola media Holy grass Anthoxanthum nitens, now more extensive than previously known at its largest VC73 site 14
