Flowers of the Forest Update Spring 2009

Encouraged by success with small scale propagation trials (on my kitchen window ledge!) of some scarcer woodland flowering plants, 2008 saw me collecting more material from various sites to provide plants for reintroduction.

A survey in an ancient pinewood fragment in Glen Affric in 2007 had revealed almost 400 of the 15-20 cm. flowering stalks of the charming little orchid creeping ladies tresses (Goodyera repens), and a return visit yielded enough material to make 20 cuttings. During the course of this search I came across another orchid, the diminutive lesser twayblade (Listera cordata). Standing only about 10 cm. high, the little reddish flowers were gone but the pair of tiny round leaves are distinctive. I collected three plants, carefully probing into the moss to unearth small, pointed buds at the base of the leaves with a few slender roots below.

I then stopped off at a site where I had previously observed hundreds of common wintergreens (Pyrola minor) growing beneath birch trees on a south facing slope. Very few had flowered and only a couple of seed heads were to be seen, so I collected no seed but took enough shoots to make 52 cuttings. All cuttings were inserted in a mixture of a little soil and moss from the parent site and ordinary potting compost.

Next on the list: intermediate wintergreen (Pyrola media). I had observed about 100 plants in July, high on a ridge of Binnilidh Mhor (a 438 metre tall peak on Dundreggan), but only six were in flower. On returning in September, I collected 15 cuttings and one seed stalk of six pods. The top of a mountain, exposed to the sun and wind. may seem a strange place to look for woodland ground flora! There are no trees there except a few individuals hanging on to cliffs and it could not be a greater contrast to the birch-clad slope in Glen Affric where I’d seen the common wintergreen. However, sufficient shelter exists under the miniature canopy of heather for the plants to survive. As the summit is well below the tree line, the presence of intermediate wintergreen is an indication that the whole hill was possibly wooded in the past.

Four down, two to go! The next, serrated wintergreen, had been reported as being abundant at a location in Glen Affric. Despite having the same common name and a similar appearance, this belongs to a different genus, the scientific name being Orthilia secunda. A visit in July found it indeed abundant, with about 150 plants sporting 20 flowering stems; a September visit yielded 32 cuttings and six seed stalks.

The final species was the elusive and rare twinflower (Linnaea borealis), which I had searched for before unsuccessfully at several locations where it was said to occur. My breakthrough came late in the year following a tip-off from someone who had seen the plant 15 years ago in pinewoods by Loch Affric. The time interval, and the fact that the area had been deer fenced three years after the sighting, made its survival there amongst recovering vegetation a tenuous possibility. Also, its delicate pairs of pink, bell-like flowers would have disappeared by October, leaving only thin, creeping woody stems and small circular leaves that would be hard to spot, but, on a wing and a prayer, I set out to find the plant. After searching for a while, I stood in the rain beneath the skeleton of a dead pine, feeling a little despondent. I was about to give up, but looking down I noticed, amongst the cowberry and blaeberry leaves, others that seemed a little different. Hardly daring to believe my eyes I looked more closely and was overjoyed to see that I had actually found the twinflower! The wiry stems, intertwined with other vegetation, were barely visible in their subtlety. I quickly snipped off a few stems for cuttings and headed back to the track. Returning to the road to pick up my colleague, I proudly showed him my prize of twinflower stems: his response was "is that it then?"!

Now, tending the cuttings (in a cold frame this time, not my kitchen window ledge!) it’s fingers crossed they will burst into growth soon. It’s also time to deal with Nature’s little miracles: the seed collected from the wintergreens. In future, some of these new plants will be used for supplementing existing populations, establishing new ones or being grown on as stock plants for further propagation.

Adam Powell

Pages about woodland ground flora on this site

• Species profile: Lesser Twayblade
• Species profile: Creeping ladies tresses
• Species profile: Twinflower
• Vascular Plants occurring in Glen Affric
• Vascular Plants, Ferns and Clubmosses recorded on Dundreggan
• Ground flora regeneration in replanted native Caledonian woodland in Glen Affric (abstract of MSc dissertation)

• The Trees for Life Woodland Ground Flora Project
• Return of the Flowers Appeal
• Flowers of the Forest Update Spring 2009
• Flowers of the Forest, Caledonia Wild! Winter 2007
• Woodland Ground Flora, Caledonia Wild! Summer 2007
• Ground Flora Propagation Trials, Caledonia Wild! Winter 2006-07
• Regenerating woodland flora - a next stage in the forest restoration process, Caledonia Wild! Summer 2002