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Erin Shott
Discover 4 new walk ideas and Scottish spring adventure inspiration from Plantlife Scotland’s Communications and Policy Officer, Erin Shott.
Look, the seasons, they are a-changing and I don’t know about you, but I am so looking forward to that sweet, sweet spring time weather. After the cold winter days and long winter nights, I am so ready to get out there and breathe in the freshness of spring.
I would highly recommend taking a visit to one of Scotland’s rainforests if you have the opportunity. The high rainfall, and mild temperatures result in lush mossy areas just bursting with lichens and bryophytes it really does feel like I’ve stepped into a fairy tale. And if that doesn’t attract your attention then you’ll be impressed with the sheer abundance, diversity, and rarity of the species of Scotland’s rainforest.
It won’t be my first visit to the temperate rainforest; however, I’ve visited Glen Nant in the past. Plantlife has a downloadable handy wild plant walk leaflet for the Glen Nant Important Plant Area (IPA), so it was a solid motivation for a visit for me.
But I hear you ask, what if I don’t want to visit a rainforest site? Looking for something short and located in the central belt?
Then download and check out North Berwick Law, our guide is for a nice 1 mile hike up one iconic hill in East Lothian. Plenty of opportunity to spot wild plants too, like Meadow Saxifrage Saxifraga granulata, this snow-white species is found in dry grasslands, or the hilariously named Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis, due to its delicate purple flowers starting to bloom just as the cuckoo first begins its call.
If you’re the Munro bagging type, then check out the Ben Nevis IPA, a delightful 10-mile hike that is absolutely rich in Bog Asphodel Narthecium ossifragum a plant once used for its potential as a natural dye or the delightfully carnivorous Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia (image by Michael Scott) which have long red-coloured stalks that are often seen with globules of ‘dew’ hanging from them. These globules are a polysaccharide solution to trap and digest their prey.
If you’re keen to spend a day out in the Cairngorms, take some time to discover Anagach woods IPA. Download your a free guide here. Soak in the wonders of the Caledonian pinewoods, maybe you’ll spot the rare and iconic Twinflower Linnaea borealis? This special plant is a focal point for our Cairngorms Rare Plants Project. You might also find some Wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella, with its clover-shaped leaves (that taste like apples), this springtime bloomer has delicate white flowers with lilac coloured veins.
A project led by the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest to protect and restore this globally important habitat
From Cape Wrath to Argyll, the West Coast of Scotland Important Plant Area (IPA) contains most of Scotland’s temperate rainforests. It is here that Plantlife is engaging landowners and West Coast communities to restore and protect rainforest.
Temperate rainforest is a rare habitat worldwide- rarer than even tropical rainforests! The special ‘oceanic’ climate where temperate rainforests are found is very wet and wild. This is due to landscape and warm ocean currents. There are remaining pockets of rainforest along the west coast of Europe, but Scotland has some of the best sites. This is because of its very wet climate, unpolluted air, and ancient woodlands.
The high rainfall and mild temperatures make woodlands humid, making it home to some of the rarest bryophytes and lichens. It is their diversity on the trees, boulders and ravines within the woodland that make Scotland’s rainforest so unique. Not only do they help maintain the humidity in the forest, but they also give it mysterious and magical feel.
But while rainforest is one of Scotland’s most important habitats, it’s in trouble. Over the centuries the rainforest has been cleared to leave sites that are small, fragmented and isolated from each other. Almost all shows little or no regrowth due to planting over with exotic conifer, improper grazing, or being choked with Rhododendron ponticum (a non-native species). Add in the threat of ash die back, nitrogen pollution, infrastructure development, and climate change, there is great risk of losing this globally important habitat.
River Nevis – Scotland
Granny Pine in Ben Nevis
Pinewood in Ben Nevis
A lichen is a composite organism made up of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner– usually an alga and sometimes a cyanobacterium (or both!). There are also yeasts and bacteria involved in the relationship.
Mosses and liverworts are ancient non-flowering plants, having been around for 400 million years. Mosses have small leaves that grow all round their stems. Liverworts may lack leaves and stems entirely or have two ranks of leaves either side of a stem.
Our Saving Scotland’s Rainforest project is working closely with the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest (ASR). A voluntary partnership of organisations which all have an interest in the conservation and sustainable development of Scotland’s rainforest.
Plantlife is also working with partners to create large-scale projects that protect and restore temperate rainforests. We are developing new ways to encourage and enable land managers to restore and expand the rainforest through the sharing of ideas, information, knowledge, and expertise.
In the small space of three years the Scottish Government has committed to protecting this unique habitat. We aim to hold them to it.
The future of Scotland’s temperate rainforests is bright and Plantlife is excited to be part of that future.
Images on this page belongs to The Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest.
Plantlife’s interactive toolkit for woodland managers, provides you with a better understanding of temperate rainforests and a guide to managing the lichens and bryophytes the lichens that grow there.
You might have recently discovered that Britain is home to one of the rarest habitats in the world – the temperate rainforest. Characterised by ancient trees, hosting a rich diversity of important small-but-mighty plants, and of course drenched in our infamous British rain! But how would you know if you were walking among one of these mysterious woodlands?
Alison from Plantlife’s Building Resilience project visits a temperate rainforest in Dartmoor, dripping with lichens, mosses and liverworts, and a richness in diversity rivalling the cloud forest of the Andes. Watch our video to see what she finds, and discover why we need to take action to protect this precious fragment of our ancient woodlands for the future.
Take a look at the guides below and see how many rainforest indicators you can spot – maybe a huge long-lived Oak tree smothered in colourful lichens, or a meandering river carving it’s way though the woodlands.
The Lake District, south west England, western Scotland and Wales are all home to ‘temperate’ rainforest. Have a look around the wood you are in using this guide. The more ticks you collect in the white boxes, the more likely it is that your wood is a rainforest.
Dave Lamacraft, Plantlife’s Lichen and Bryophyte Specialist, heads out to discover a wealth of extraordinary lichens which call Wales’ rainforests home.
Britain is home to one of the rarest habitats in the world – the temperate rainforest. But how would you know if you were walking in one?
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