Moors
The uplands
divide into heather and grass moorland. In wetter places the
ground is broken up into great peat haggs with heather growing on
top of them and bare squelchy peat in between them, which after a
prolonged spell of dry weather becomes crusty and cracked as in
the picture on the left. This kind of country is difficult to
walk, but can be rewarding for the botanist, particularly for
insect-eating plants such as sundews and butterworts. All nine
species of insect-eating plants native to Britain can be found in
Skye. One of these, the Common Butterwort, is shown below right.
Bog-cotton is typical of this habitat, its feathery seedheads
giving a snowy appearance to certain stretches of moorland at a
distance. In the picture above-left a few stems of it have
colonised the bare peat where they are free from all competition.
The Bog Asphodel (below, centre) brightens up the dreariest
trudge through the bog, and where there is standing water the
Bogbean (below. left) adds to the glory of the scene.
At
lower elevations the wet moorland flushes can be very beautiful
in summer with Creeping Forget-me-not, Lesser Spearwort, Marsh
Willowherb, Marsh Lousewort and Marsh Cinquefoil prominent. Drier
moorland also has its colourful characters, with Tormentil,
Common Lousewort, Heath Milkwort (which comes in a variety of
colours), Field Gentian (right) and Wild Thyme, which in places
plays host to the rare parasitic plant Thyme Broomrape. The
heather itself comes in three varieties: Ling, which is the
dominant form that carpets the moors, Bell Heather, which comes
into flower earlier and forms clumps on dry ground, and
Cross-Leaved Heath, with pink flowers, found in the wetter
patches. Any of these can be found with white flowers on occasion
and they all count as "lucky white heather". Heather
was used for bedding by the people of Skye until the eighteenth
century, also for making
rope, thatching, dyeing (it gives a
yellow colour) and many other uses in the days when
self-sufficiency was a necessity and not an ideology. Several
other wiry little shrubs are found on our moors, of which the
Crowberry (left) and the Bilberry are noted for their edible
fruit, and Bog Myrtle for its midge-repellent properties.
The Trotternish Ridge holds a variety of
arctic-alpine species, some of them national rarities. Those that
grow on the cliff face will have to be appreciated at a distance
by most people; even so, the tight pink cushions of the Moss
Campion are unmistakable, and many attractive lowland species
such as Valerian, Angelica and Globe Flower also grow on these
rock ledges where they are safe from grazing, along with upland
herbs such as Goldenrod (right), Stone Bramble and Roseroot. To
scan the rock face with binoculars turns up endless treasures;
look out for the Holly Fern, the Moonwort and the Purple
Saxifrage (below), which comes into flower in March. Other
alpines grow on the accessible side of the ridge. The thin dry
windswept gravelly soil at the very edge of some of the higher
summits is dominated by Dwarf Willow and Mossy Cyphel, but it is
a little lower down, away from the cliff edge, where the first
springs of water appear, that the really interesting hunting is
to be had.
Here the star of the show is the tiny
Iceland Purslane, a plant not known in Britain until it was
discovered on the Trotternish Ridge in the 1950's. It has since
been found on the Isle of Mull as well, but not yet anywhere on
the mainland. It grows in muddy flushes along with the
Three-flowered Rush. Plants such as Sibbaldia and Alpine
Meadow-rue will often be found close by. Needless to say it is
important that visitors do not disturb or damage these plants.
Take photos, not specimens. This web page will be most grateful
for any pictures you care to send in.