iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

And as you suggested, the other apparent hybrid had melted away by the time I went back. Evidently differential rates of development of leaves.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Varied our usual walk at Muir of Dinnet and found some different things. Serrated wintergreen (2 pics), few-flowered sedge & small nettle (previously with 1, 2 & 1 BSBI DDb records in their respective hectads). Surprisingly for such a well visited area there is still much to be discovered.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I didn't realise the paucity of cloudberry records there until I looked it up on the DDb whilst having lunch. Do pass on any grid refs you still have for it to Ian F. Also, did you see any clubmosses other than Stag's-horn? They also seem to be surprisingly scarce on Hill of Fare.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Two unexpected finds on Hill of Fare, South Aberdeenshire, today. Intermediate wintergreen, 22 flowering spikes from this year and only a few metres off a main route up, 2 previous records on the hill. Cloudberry. several scattered locations, mostly in heathy hollows, 3 previous records on the hill.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Biogeography is full of surprises!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

After filling some of the gaps in 3 tetrads with few previous records, I treated myself to a gander at the lesser pond-sedge near Gartly. Despite being a rare species in North Aberdeenshire (only 2 known sites), the stand is dense, large (ca 70 m diameter) and pleasantly easy to find.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

An extraordinary density of oak seedlings at Dinnet Oakwood in North Aberdeenshire today, a natural consequence of the high density of acorns produced last autumn. It will be interesting to see how many survive to become saplings.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm liking this for floating bur-reed, though in a bit of a weird place: a pond surrounded by arable farmland near New Deer. Had to walk about 1 km round a huge potato field to get to it. Took flushing a quail on the way as a good omen. 4th record for North Aberdeenshire.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Hare's-tail cottongrass looking like it's going to have a late flowering on Cloichedubh Hill, Clashindarroch Forest, North Aberdeenshire yesterday. I went there on a failed mission to refind alpine clubmoss. Suspect lost due to reduction of the deer population to prevent damage to young conifers.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I think it's hard to make a nature conservation case for protecting a site based on its flora when so many species have been introduced. But this discovery adds to the backdrop of their case built around the importance of the site for contact between people and nature.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Fool's-water-cress has only been recorded in Kincardineshire once before, in 1996, so finding it at St Fittick's Park in Aberdeen was quite a surprise. Plenty of other species were introduced there as part of a wetland creation scheme, so I'm thinking most likely of similar origin.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Don't know if they're edible, but I've never seen enough together to make much of a meal!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Back home after 3 days of filling gaps in records from 8 tetrads in North Aberdeenshire north of Huntly. New sites for alpine bistort, lesser tussock-sedge and moschatel (surprisingly late in the season). Also three-nerved sandwort with a pleasingly symmetrical leaf arrangement.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Mountain bog-sedge, Carex rariflora, has had a good flowering season in the saddle mire below Cac Carn Beag (Lochnagar).

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Never mind the field gentians, just look at all the lovely variegated horsetail!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Spring sandwort and thrift are both having a second flowering period amongst the serpentine rocks of Green Hill of Strathdon, South Aberdeenshire.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

After several hours recording in the intensively farmed and botanically impoverished landscape north of Ellon, imagine my delight at finding some fragments of relic heathland, providing evidence of how things were before the era of agricultural improvement.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Most of my encounters with cornflower round Aberdeen involve plants derived from 'wildflower seed mixes'. But I think the few plants amongst a preponderance of fat hen and common orache at Newton Dee may be derived from dormant seed brought to the surface during construction of a new bakery.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

In South Aberdeenshire, field pennycress records come in at a rate of under one per year. So it was nice to find a good population of them in a field of neeps when cycling along a minor road south of Garlogie today.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Looks more like a Dryopteris to me. A "walked on by" about which I suspect the identity will never be known.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

We all have (usually subconscious) "strength of evidence" thresholds to be crossed before making / accepting records. So it's interesting to hear about those used by others.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

That's an interesting way of keeping the probability of incorrect identification down at the expense of regarding some (many perhaps) plants as indeterminate.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

No sign of flowering or fruiting, nothing new there!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Please could you enlarge on the proportion rule you use? The statistician in me worries that such rules can not be completely reliable unless taxon A always has the character and taxon B never does, though the chances of making a mistake can be reduced by increasing the sample size.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Thanks Alan. I was using the BSBI recording app, which annotated the record "First record for vc94". I started recording by Loch Builg in VC94. Evidently the app hadn't kept up with my progressing into VC92, even though it did recognise my crossing out of the monad I had declared as recording in!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Made my first trip to Loch Builg today, cycling from near Crathie. Surprised to see wild strawberry on the shore, with a tiny creeping lady's-tresses nearby. Also I'm liking the sedge on the right for slender sedge Carex lasiocarpa at Lochan Feurach, a first for Banffshire if the referee agrees...

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Do those 10 stamens not suffice?

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Bought in Aberdeen over 30 years ago, can't remember the shop never mind their supplier!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

One benefit of low water levels is that water courses with impenetrable bankside vegetation become navigable on foot. Taking advantage of this yesterday I explored a different section of the River North Esk, extending downstream the known ranges of mountain melick and sanicle.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I do like finding brambles with 7 leaflets, all the more satisfying as they can be hard to find amongst more normal leaves with 5 leaflets. This plant with strong, broad-based prickles on the stem angles is Rubus fissus. Near Strachan, Kincardineshire, yesterday.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Stoneworts seem to be in short supply in north east Scotland, and when found are often infertile. So delighted to find this specimen which I think is smooth stonewort (Nitella flexilis s s.) in a drainage channel amongst sand dunes near Cairnbulg. First BSBI record for North Aberdeenshire.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Only once before have I had a good view of a live mole. This one started off on the golf course at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, then headed at a fair lick through long rough to a sandy area. Not fazed by the golfers, nor by me getting ahead and waiting for it to pass by. Too hot to be down a hole?

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

For a plant that can grow under birch it's surprisingly scarce up here. But out on a limb, a root or a hypha? Here's what Plant Atlas 2020 has to say: "N. nidus-avis is an obligate mycoheterotroph that is entirely dependent on mycorrhizal fungi from the family Sebacinaceae for its nutrition."

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The BSBI DDb has two 10-figure grid refs for bird's-nest orchid at Easter Balmoral dated 2013. At both spots yesterday I found 1 flowering spike plus 2 from last year but none elsewhere. Precision ecological continuity, begging the question why they not widespread in similar birch woodland nearby?

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Barry Goater was tutor on a moths course I went on at Kindrogan, Perthshire. He showed us much more than moths, such an inspiring naturalist

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

'Twas a day of massed ranks at Crathie today: a veritable forest of creeping ladies-tresses in Balmoral castle grounds, at least 1000 spikes in all; a blaze of colour provided by stems of wavy hair-grass; and a huge patch of twinflower, with signs of attempted genetic enhancement by translocation.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

There's an area of floodplain woodland by the River Dee in Aberdeen that I've been visiting regularly for over 30 years. Yet my latest visit yielded two additions: wood dock in damp woodland soil, and creeping yellow-cress on a shingle bank. Just goes to show, you've never seen it all!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

No worries, certainly a large stand of it by the River Ythan, too.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Yes please. Does it grow on lesser pond-sedge too?

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Spent the weekend trying to track down and see for myself species reported recently by others. Success rate 4/9 bolstered by some unexpected discoveries on route. 3 of the refinds were sedges: prickly sedge; greater pond-sedge; and curved sedge courtesy of @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Recording two Kincardineshire edge tetrads (all mostly in South Aberdeenshire) took me to some unexpected lycopods on the Hill of Fare (fir and interrupted clubmosses, both hectad 2nds) and a huge population of annual knawel (likely 10,000s along 300 m of farm tracks and in adjacent bare ground).

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

A team effort. A lot of speculation would have been avoided if we had known at the outset how amazingly aristate the lower female glumes of Carex recta are. What a stunner!

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Seen during a walk along Aberdeen promenade yesterday: floral displays much greater now the Council mows less frequently; large individuals of lesser meadow-rue, popular with the bees; crested hair-grass in full flower; dandelions laid out to dry by a collector of Chinese or similar heritage.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

At Cabrach today near the western edge of VC93 North Aberdeenshire. One site for shady horsetail seems lost (much marsh horsetail there now). Still present at another site, by the Allt Deveron though. Most unexpected find of the day was downy oat-grass, 1st record from the VC93 part of hectad NJ32.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Tried to refind twayblade along a disused railway line north-west of Inverurie. I wasn't expecting to succeed and didn't. But neither was I expecting to find hairy sedge or crosswort, and did. Both are rare away from the coast in North Aberdeenshire and may be accidental introductions.

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Heath fragrant-orchid and alpine bistort, two of the more attractive plants recorded in the grassland above the Den of Pitlurg, Huntly, yesterday

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Have just heard back from the referee who says Taraxacum caledonicum for this one. That's a sought-after addition to my Dande-tick-list. Question is, will I remember it next time I find it (ca. 1 year hence I imagine)?

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David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I was hoping our ascent of Morrone, near Braemar, might yield a dandelion or two. And just look at this beauty growing in the limestone grassland: erect outer bracts; long, inrolled ligules; looks just like Taraxacum obliquum. But all BSBI DDb records for that are coastal. Interesting!

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