Vaccinium myrtillus -
Blaeberry, MorayAlpine plants are really left over from an ice age, when sheets of ice and an Arctic climate covered much of Scotland. As the ice melted and the climate began to warm up, these plants, which lived on the barren soils at the very margin of the glaciers, began to grow higher up the mountains behind the shrinking ice sheet. In time, the permanent ice has left us, but many of the plants remain, in areas where the competition from other species is less vigorous, and where they are well adapted to the extremes of climate which they must still endure on our mountain tops. In fact the tops of some of our very highest mountains do still have more-or-less permanent patches of snow and ice, but these are small and do not last every summer.
Scotland is probably not the first geographical location that many people would associate with spectacular alpine or mountain flowers. This is perhaps fortunate because it does mean that, in some localities at least, the pressures from over collecting, and the sheer weight of walkers trampling over the sites, have been less than in some other parts of the world. But Scotland does have a unique Alpine Flora, lying as it does at the junction between the Arctic Alpine and European Continental Alpine regions.
Our alpine flowers are often small, hard to find, and rarely outstandingly spectacular. But, go out and look for them, and you will find some interesting examples of plants which can survive under the most exacting conditions. The following illustrations show a selection of both flowering and non flowering plants from the hills and mountains around Moray and North Scotland.
Vaccinium myrtillus -
Blaeberry, Moray
Producing edible blue berries in late summer, this deciduous relative of the heathers occurs both in lowland moorland and on mountain tops up to at least 2000 feet. This photograph shows the dainty red bell-like flowers, which appear in early summer. Most people will be familiar with the related North American Blueberry - found in, amongst other places, blueberry muffins!
Huperzia selago - Fir Clubmoss,
Moray
Clubmosses - closely related to ferns - are extremely vulnerable to heath fires, and especially so to the practice of deliberate burning which is required to maintain a good grouse moor. Perhaps key areas of this plant should be identified and protected from regular burning? It is also vulnerable to afforestation of its upland habitats, and is much less common than it used to be in many areas.
Diphasiastrum alpinum - Alpine Clubmoss,
Moray
This is a truly alpine plant, rarely found growing below 2000 feet. It prefers areas where competition from other plants is reduced, often in amongst Blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), and is often associated with other clubmosses such as Huperzia selago. It has very distinctive blue-green foliage, and is vulnerable to the same environmental pressures as Huperzia selago.
Loiseleuria procumbens - Mountain Azalea, North Sutherland
Rather scarce in Moray, from only the highest mountains in the south of the area, at above 3000 feet. On the North Coast of Scotland, where this specimen was photographed, it grows at only about 700 feet above sea level, on highly exposed tundra like heath in close association with Bearberry, Alpine Bearberry, Least Willow and Lichens. Its common name reflects that although the individual flowers are only 2 - 3 mm long, the plant indeed belongs to the same family as the showy garden Azaleas and Rhododendrons with which we are all familiar. Growing at such altitude and under such exacting conditions, the creeping woody stems of one plant may extend over no more than a half metre, yet representing the growth of a plant maybe fifty years old, or more.
Cornus suecica -
Dwarf Cornel, North Sutherland
Also known from only the highest parts of Moray, this too grows at rather lower altitudes farther North. It belongs to the same family as the garden Dogwoods or Cornus species, deciduous shrubs often grown for their colourful winter bark. This plant is, by contrast, only a few centimetres high. The white 'petals' are in fact the upper two pairs of leaves, enclosing a small cluster of black and rather inconspicuous flowers which eventually give rise to bright red berries, turning to black when fully ripe in late summer.
Rubus chamaemorus - Cloudberry, Moray and Sutherland
The flower (left), fruit, and even the leaves are very similar in appearance to those of the bramble. Hardly surprising, since they are closely related.Cloudberry is a wonderfully evocative name for a plant which lives, almost, in the clouds. It is common on some of the higher hills in Moray, especially on the rather more moist north facing slopes which it seems to prefer. The fruits are edible, but probably best left for the benefit of the wild birds and mammals which feed on them.
Silene acaulis - Moss Campion, North Sutherland
Although not recorded from Moray, this alpine is well known from many of the higher hills in Central Scotland and from the hills of Sutherland. We have included it here as an example of a cushion forming alpine plant. This habit of growth has a number of advantages - it helps to shed water from the plant, bur retain scarce soil particles, and the rounded profile also protects it from some of the force of the wind.
In common with a number of other alpine plants, Moss Campion is also found on exposed sea cliffs in the North. The similarities of exposure to extreme conditions in both sea cliffs and on mountain tops have resulted in this rather curious distribution pattern for a large number of Scottish alpines, many of which are better known as seashore plants. It came about probably at the end of the last Ice Age as the Arctic plants, common over the whole country as the ice began to melt, tried to adapt to the warmer climate and increasing competition from other species which began to move in. They gradually retreated to those areas where they were able, by their own nature, to withstand the adverse conditions but where the competition from other plants, which could not, was less. Hence many of the plants typical of the coastal habitat in the North of Scotland are, in fact, relict Subarctic Alpine populations.
