Number 10 - botanical highs!
No.10 13 July 2008 Botanical highs on Ben Lawers Ben Lawers had attained a mythical status with me due to 'Tales of Botanical Wonders', told by Barry Banson. I needed to go... From my guest-house bedroom window, the hilltops were obscured by cloud, but there it had been dry and mild, so it was with some surprise that when I got out of the car at the Ben Lawers Visitor Centre it was not only windy (force 6) but also cold enough to need gloves and a woolly hat. I didn't pause much during the first hour of the ascent, the habitat above the nature trail being a monotonous swathe of Heather , Cross-leaved Heath , Bell Heather , Tormentil , Heath Bedstraw and Bilberry with various grasses in-between. However, a series of path-side ditches held appreciable numbers of Starry Saxifrage together with Common Butterwort , Lousewort and Hare's-tail Cottongrass along with Mat-grass (the food plant of Mountain Ringlet). My first new 'alpine' of the day occurred...