The area of Moray, in North East Scotland, which covers most of the former counties of Morayshire and Banffshire, is very fortunate to have many different kinds of wild plants growing in its relatively undisturbed areas of countryside. This on-line exhibition shows you something of these plants and the people who first studied and recorded them.
Why are our native plants important? Wild plants - flowers, trees, ferns, mosses and so on - represent a huge variety of forms of life, are beautiful to look at, interesting in their variety and diversity, and potentially useful to society.
A great many were used historically for medical purposes, and we still rely on many drugs, such as aspirin, digitalin and morphine derivatives, which were first isolated from plants. Foxgloves are well known as the original source of an assortment of medicines used to treat certain heart conditions; bearberry was once commonly used to treat urinary infections; extract of cherry laurel was used as a sedative, as were a number of wild flowers belonging to the potato family such as henbane and deadly nightshade. The bark of wild cherry was used to treat coughs; willow bark was the original source of the medicine we know as Aspirin. Some non flowering plants, such as lichens, contain a bewildering assortment of chemicals, some with strong antibiotic properties - that is to say, they kill bacteria. Mosses and lichens are also reliable indicators of pollution since many of them will grow only in very clean air. And remember that all our food crops, from wheat and rye to beans and sprouts, have all been bred from wild ancestors.
The present distribution of many species, when compared with historical records for their occurrence, gives a remarkable insight into the level of destruction of habitat, and loss of wild plant communities, which has occurred in the last two hundred years. In other cases, it gives us some idea of the tenacity for life and resilience of other species, which continue to survive in spite of huge changes in the land use, and alteration of their habitat.
 | Is it acceptable to lose wild species of plants for ever? |
| Is there anything we can do to prevent their loss? |
This web site does not try to answer these questions, but perhaps after reading them you will think about these issues, enlightened by the wealth of information and images contained here.
Some of the native plants of North Scotland. - Portraits of the plants and the places in which they are to be found
The historical timeline of botanists who discovered them growing in Moray - a story of discovery by people from the last two centuries who lived and worked in Moray.
A special word of advice to any of you who might go out looking for wild plants. Remember to ask permission from landowners before going walking, and to follow the Country Code. Please never pick wild plants of any sort. They are best admired where they are growing, and left there to produce more of their kind. You might like to try photographing them instead.
Text and images © 2000 The Moray Council
Photographs © 2000 A & M Joyce, Forres, Moray