Seaside Summer Liz Lavery

let us record consistently and add notes to our records where plants differ from the standard descriptions.

Seaside Summer Liz Lavery Much of my botanising in 2021 was during coastal walks while visiting our newest granddaughter in Finnechty Village, VC 94 Banffshire. The Moray coast is a very beautiful part of the world and I recommend it to everybody. A new very exciting find for me was Oxalis articulata (Pink-sorrel), one small plant nestling at the base of the raised beach sea cliff on the southern side of Sandy Creek; this must be a garden escape naturalised here. However there are two other recent records for this species in VC94 from not far away at Slackhead and Bogmoor. Another unusual plant established in a rocky outcrop at the top of the shore was a Hebe, a favourite garden hedge plant in the village, perhaps Veronica x franciscana (Hedge Veronica (V. elliptica x speciosa)). Two unusual weeds were seeding profusely in my son’s stony seashore garden, Malva arborea (Tree-mallow) with its sturdy tap roots and the very smelly tiny yellow flowers of Diplotaxis muralis (Annual Wall-rocket). Both were common in rough ground around the shore. Locals were complaining about the spread of Tree-mallow as a nuisance thug of a plant. A single little plant of Fumaria capreolata (White Ramping-fumitory) was growing in the lee of a carpenter’s shed. I found beautiful Asplenium marinum (Sea Spleenwort) hiding in many cracks and crannies on sea cliffs along the Moray coast. Bright orange clumps of Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora (Montbretia (C. aurea x pottsii)) were common on grassy cliff slopes around the shore. Dense bushes of Rosa rugosa (Japanese Rose) with magnificent red hips grew in the shelter of the seawall. There were large patches of the wonderfully named Honckenya peploides (Sea Sandwort) at the top of the sandy beach together with a few straggly clumps of Cakile maritima (Sea Rocket), both are common plants on the upper shore of beaches. All of these plants were a delight to me who normally spends most of her time botanising inland away from the sea. I even attempted to identify a few of the multitudinous seaweeds that appeared at low tide. All my finds will be submitted to the BSBI database and VCRs told so they can check them out.