Category: Plants
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Strangford Lough flora: an update
Since 2022 I have been recording the flora of some islands in Strangford Lough. I received a Plant Study Grant from the BSBI to work on this in the Summer of 2022 but as it turned out I had committed to a much bigger project than I first thought! I recently submitted my records and…
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Yellow Rattle
This is an adapted version of my poster, which is also available as a pdf or png. As with all my work on this site it is CC BY 4.0 (free for use/adaptation as long as I am credited).
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Autumn Lady’s Tresses: an orchid species new to Ulster
On the thirteenth of August, I was at Killard National Nature Reserve, Co. Down, with my mum. We were looking for Frog Orchids and other species rare in the county like Quaking Grass and Field Scabious. She found a plant she didn’t recognise and asked me what it was, and it was Autumn Lady’s Tresses.…
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Modelling Yellow Rattle in a simulated grassland
The model in this post is based on the one in Cameron et al. (2009), improving how seed dispersal is modelled and the dynamics are visualised.
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Total ecosystem evapotranspiration – an overlooked factor in grassland hemiparasite ecology?
A factor that I believe has been overlooked in the ecology of hemiparasites is that they could have a significant effect on water availability in grassland communities, by increasing the total evapotransiration in the ecosystem.
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Comparing parasite and host strategies in a Portuguese grassland
This was a small project we threw together over three days on our Plant Sciences fieldtrip to Portugal. Our project compared the strategies used by two parasitic plants in the Orobanchaceae and a shared host species in the Fabaceae.
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Hemiparasitic plants in Irish grasslands
Hemiparasitic plants are those which steal water and nutrients from other plants, but still photosynthesise (so are green). They are an interesting part of the Irish flora, and some can play an important role in grasslands by weakening other plants – particularly Yellow Rattle. I want to run through some of the common hemiparasites found…
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Belfast’s urban flora
In the nineties, the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club extensively surveyed the urban flora of Belfast, resulting in a book, Urban Flora of Belfast. Many plants new to Down and Antrim were found, and most of these were new to Ireland as well. This was a three-year effort involving some thirty-one recorders. Since this survey, Belfast…
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British and Irish Botanical Conference, November 22
Today I went to the BSBI’s November conference in the Natural History Museum in London to present my poster on my summer project surveying islands on Strangford Lough, and do a 60 second flash talk. It was really great to meet other people who are passionate about plants and learn from them.
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Annual Beard-grass: a new species for County Down (H38)
03/11/2023 EDIT: actually a rediscovery, this species was recorded in Belfast pre-1930 Earlier this year, I found a species of grass I didn’t recognise, growing as a pavement plant in East Belfast. With a guide I identified it as Polypogon monspeliensis (Annual Beard-grass), a new species for County Down. This species is known from Dublin…
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The Islands Project
This summer I am cataloguing the flora and plant communities of twelve islands in Strangford Lough, with the help of a BSBI Plant Study Grant. The goal is to have a complete species list of each island and a map showing all of the plant communities and where they occur.