Summary In this brief review, the use of wild flower seeds is described as a contribution to the enhancement of biodiversity and as a way of improving grassland and other plant communities. Ecological concerns about sowing seeds in locations that are climatically contrasted to the countries from which the seed is sourced are discussed. Characteristics that aid the spread and survival of normally uncultivated species create difficulties in seed production and use. Establishment of a crop for seed production and subsequent weed control can be troublesome and procedures to achieve these have been developed based on experience. Harvesting methods are selected and modified to suit the maturity and dispersal characteristics of different species. Drying and processing, to ensure the removal of a large proportion of the unwanted material, such as appendages that aid wind dispersal, insect parts and weed seeds, can consist of as many as 10stages for some species. As the final stage in production, seed quality control of wild flower seeds through germination testing has not been routine in the past. Our research has identified appropriate dormancy breaking treatments for a range of species, so that we currently can test the quality of seeds both from different harvest years and periods of storage. Key words: wildflower seedsproductiontreatmentuse
Summary The study aimed to determine how quickly heather responds in Scottish moorland once deer grazing pressure is reduced. We monitored heather attributes and deer distribution over ten years in Glen Lui and Glen Derry, two contrasting nearby areas of it 200 ha at Mar Lodge in the eastern Cairngorms. In one area the deer received winter food, affecting the zonation of their impact. In both areas the deer were initially lightly culled, then culling was increased. Mean heather shoot utilisation was 35 % and 48 % less in the last five years of the study than initially in the two areas, and was very closely correlated with deer pellet-group counts. In Glen Lui heather cover increased significantly but height increases were small. In Glen Derry heather increased significantly in height but little in cover. We attributed the different response to the presence of a secondary grazer (rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Glen Lui and also better conditions for heather growth on the drier soils there; rabbits grazemore delicately than deer, taking mainly the shoottips of heather and thus encourage lateral shootgrowth. In Glen Lui heather response also varied between four radial zones based on distance from the feeding grounds. At best, there was appreciable recovery four years after the easing of deer grazing pressure, but average amounts of recovery were modest.
Commentary: Douglas McKean* The woollen industry allowed alien seeds to escape via effluent from the mills on to the banks of the Rivers Gala and Tweed. The old skin works in Galashiels was another source of alien seeds and wool shoddy (with lurking alien seed) was spread on fields to improve soil fertility. Modern effluent treatment and the cessation of spreading wool shoddy has largely curtailed the introduction of alien seed except for those introduced via wild bird seed which comes from anywhere with a cheap source of seed even as far away as America. Most of us would be unaware of this but for the telltale plants such as the American Ragweeds, e.g. Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (annual), which spring up around bird feeders. This alien plant, along with Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. is the one most often sent to the Botanic Garden for identification. Fortunately, neither is aggressive coloniser, at least not in our climate, and so they do not prosper like the Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica Houtt.) or Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum Sommier & Levier). Ambrosia psylostachya DC., a perennial, has however become established in Ayrshire and S. and W. Lancashire. Incidentally, the annual Ragweed is hyper-allergenic and causes severe hay fever; its control is compulsory in many countries in continental Europe where the species has become widely established. The paper by Hayward is a good illustration of the effects of industry on botanical diversity, albeit temporary in most cases. There is currently an upsurge in interest in non-native species (e.g. Manchester & Bullock 2000). A recently published government consultation on the subject can be found at: http://www. defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/non-native/index.htm
"A selection of papers published in Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (1836–1990) an introduction." Botanical Journal of Scotland, 58(2), pp. 109–110
Summary The oil-shale bings of West Lothian, Scotland, are a group of post-industrial waste sites, unique in Britain and Western Europe. The industrial exploitation of oil-bearing rocks has created a habitat with its own distinctive flora and fauna. The floral diversity of individual sites has been documented as species lists in several studies. A comprehensive list of more than 350 plant species, with supplementary information on animal species, was compiled from an extensive literature review of these studies. From these data it was possible to determine the extent of species variation within and between bings, identify locally and nationally rare species, and thus to determine the importance of the oil-shale bing habitat at a local and national scale. The results will go some way to allay concerns about the loss of local biodiversity, generally throughout the country side, due to changes in agricultural practices and increased urbanisation. Findings from the bings and evidence from other types of derelict land suggest that species are not lost, they have moved to new habitats. Key words: oil-shale bingplant species diversityRed Data Species
Summary Summary Restoration of scrub and woodland in deforested upland sites is an important conservation activity. However, little is known about the mycorrhizal colonisation potential of upland soils or the factors that influence the distribution of mycorrhizal inoculum. We investigated the effect of existing vegetation on mycorrhizal colonisation potential for a sub-arctic willow (Salix lapponum) by planting uninoculated cuttings into plotsrepresenting two upland habitats with either grassand herbs ('grass') or Vaccinium myrtillus ('vaccinium') and assessing mycorrhizal colonisation after 14 months using morphological and molecular techniques. From 40 willow cuttings (20 in each habitat), DNA sequences of rive ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungal taxa were recovered: Laccaria proxima, Thelephora terrestris, Hebeloma sp., 'Thelephoraceae sp.' and 'Pezizales sp.'. Cuttings in the 'grass' habitat were dominated by Laccaria proxima and 'Pezizales sp.' and in the 'vaccinium' habitat by Thelephora terrestris which was absent from the 'grass' habitat. There were no significant differences between habitats in frequency of EcM inoculum (overall percentage of cuttings colonised = 70%) or colonisation potential (overall mean percentage of root tips colonised per cutting = 20 %). These data suggest that the mycorrhizal colonisation potential and diversity of fungi available to willow in these upland soils are low and planted willow may benefit from inoculum enhancement. Key words: ectomycorrhizae Laccaria proxima montane willowrestoration Thelephora terrestris
(1970). Some effects of animal grazing and browsing on vegetation. Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh: Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 85-94.
Summary Saxifraga hirculus, the yellow marsh saxifrage, is a rare protected species growing in baserich flushes. For conservation, better knowledge is needed on its performance and habitat preferences, hence three colonies in the Cabrach district of Aberdeenshire have been monitored closely over the past eleven years. Additionally observations are reported on flowering at a ‘recovery site’ to which saxifrage Plants have been transplanted. At one of the natural colonies S. hirculus has clearly increased, at another there has been decline, and at the third so many inflorescences are removed by grazing that the trend could not be decided. The increase, as measured by flowering, was associated with moderately heavy grazing that maintained sward height at about 20–25 cm in summer. The decrease in saxifrage flowering was associated with light grazing and a sward of 35–40 cm height; however drought conditions in 2003 were perhaps responsible, affecting the water table of this colony more than the other colonies due to site topography. At the third colony water voles (Arvicola amphibious) have been regularly present, and have clear impact on the vegetation around their holes. It is suggested that the voles eat the flowering shoots of the saxifrage.
Summary Some questions discussed in and conclusions arrived at in the above paper are: 1. 1.Paleobotany changed the face of Morphology. 2. 2.Did Life develop out of the inanimate world in one single period or has it done so continually? 3. 3.Did the taxonomic ‘levels’ (categories of increasing size and discontinuity) now recognised rise at one given period, or do they continue to widen their scope? 4. 4.Why are ‘intermediates’ in paleontology so rare? 5. 5.Two elementary processes in the evolution of plants are: (more or less slow) growth alterations and (more or less sudden) differentiation. 6. 6.Differentiation primarily arises from unequal cell-division; growth changes are functions of tissues (meristems), due to physiological causes. Both are genetically determined. 7. 7.The concept of homology rests on inequality of daughter-cells of a cell-division and, though more vaguely, on the comparison of organs to which growth alterations are ascribed (cf. point 28). 8. 8.The concept ‘leaf’ has no morphological basis; at best it is a functional notion (cf. point 20). 9. 9.The basic unit in the Cormophyta is the protostelic telome. In all but the most primitive types, all nerves are homologous with mesomes, nerve endings with telomes or mesomes. Most organs can only be interpreted as homologa of other organs when at least some of them are vascularised. 10. 10.Dichotomy is the only and universal way of ramification in Cormophyta except perhaps in the very oldest ones. The possibility of an original lateral ramification is discussed. Types of ramification, traditionally described or named differently are derivable from the original dichotomy by the assumption of some simple evolutionary processes to which can be ascribed a selectional value. 11. 11.Mixed Protective Bifurcating Units (MPB Units) — a dichotomy with a fertile and a sterile part — arose early in the evolution of stachyosporous Cormophyta and acquired a considerable autonomy. They were either mono-or poly-telomic, resulting in the axillary position of sporangia in the lower groups, as well as in the ‘Schuppenkomplex’ of the female Coniferous cone and axillary stamens and ovules (or placentae) in stachyosporous Angiosperms. MPB Units are characteristic of stachyosporous groups and relatively efficient. In these groups overtopping was an early prevailing principle in the reproductory sphere; in the vegetative one (main ramification) dichotomy was preserved in some groups (Psilopsida, Lycopsida). 12. 12.Similar units, though not protective, are found in the Ophioglossales as well as in such lepto-ferns as Aneimia. They are here called Mixed Bifurcation Units(MB Units). They are the basic type in the phyllosporous groups, in which the dichotomies were (and are) long preserved, both in the vegetative and in the reproductory spheres; overtopping is acquired much later and mainly in the vegetative sphere. The intrinsic protective power of the MB Units is weak and had to be improved by several auxiliary structures (cf. point 14). 13. 13.The association of leaf and axillary shoot is based on the same principle as is valid for the MPB Units. In the first-named case we may speak of Sterile Protective Bifurcation Units (SPB Units). They confirm the interpretation of the axillary flower as a modified shoot. It is conceivable that in both types correlative processes have developed, by which the two components influence each other physiologically. The latter process is supposed to occur in the cones of both sexes in Cycadaceae, and the male ones in Coniferae, in which the sporophylls are not known to produce axillary buds, sterile and fertile being known to be antagonistic. In younger Sphenopsida a diagonal SPB Unit is found between leaves and branches, based on the peculiar venation of the node. 14. 14.Other types of protection were acquired in the phyllosporous ferns, such as position of the sporangia on the lower leaf side (except where the leaf is infolded, as is the case in Marsilia), forming of thick-walled synangia (eusporangiate ferns) and indusia (leptosporangiate ferns). 15. 15.It is stated that superprotection of megasporangia was first obtained at an early period by the development of one or more integuments and that these integuments have originated by the shifting upwards of sterile telomes or syntelomes, often two of them, as is intimated by the venation of several integuments. 16. 16.Two types of integument are recognised: the type of the Pteridosperms and the Cycadales with dichotomising nerves, and the type of the Coniferopsida, Cycadeoidales, etc., which is bivalved and mostly not vascularised. In several ways, Ginkgo takes an intermediate position. 17. 17.There seems to be no or little correlation between the two integument types on the one hand, and stachyospory-phyllospory on the other. 18. 18.A megasporangium covered by an integument is called an ovule. It is suggested that integuments belong to the same morphological category as the cupule of the Pteridospermales, arilli in many groups and, in some cases, pseudocarpels. 19. 19.In some Ephedra species the pairs of decussate leaves on the axillary female shoot gradually merge into what has sometimes been called perianth, sometimes outer integument. It is suggested that the series is continued up to and including the innermost integument. 20. 20.It is further supposed that the same condition is to be found in some Monochlamydeous Angiosperms with ‘false carpels’ (pseudocarpels) in which case another distinction between Gymnosperms and Angiosperms is fading away, the only remaining ones being the double fertilisation and the ensuing secondary endosperm, characters which, like the others, may prove to be of doubtful differential value. The concept ‘flower’, having no objective morphological status, is accordingly differentially useless and should not be used as a botanical term (cf. point 8). 21. 21.Under these circumstances Casuarina had better be reinserted in the Angiosperms and accordingly the Protangiosperms as a class dropped. 22. 22.Superprotective structures are of several kinds and levels: the supercupula of Calathospermum, peltate and closely congregated sporophylls in the Zamiaceae, close aggregation of ovules and interspersed sterile organs in the Cycadeoidales, of ovules in the Pentoxylales, of Mixed Protective Bifurcation Units in the female coniferous cones, Chlamydospermales and stachyosporous Angiosperms, infolding of sporophylls in phyllosporous ones, inferior ovary in both, aggregation of flowers into inflorescences and of these into superinflorescences. 23. 23.Sporangia of both sexes have, like the sterile telomes, retained their original autonomy in whatever way they are secondarily grouped, arranged, or protected. 24. 24.With the progressive evolution of the sporangia, the regressive one of the gametophytes goes hand in hand. The peculiar role played by the ventral canal-cell is described and the possible pursuance of the line of evolution given in outline. 25. 25.Interchangeability of sterile and fertile ‘telomes’, as well as stem and leaf, is to be expected even in the Angiosperms. It may account for several controversies in the interpretation of organs as well as for that of certain terata. 26. 26.The autonomy of such organs as stems and leaves is mostly overrated. The existence of organs of an intermediate origin should be seriously considered. 27. 27.In endeavouring to interpret present organs and their phylogenetical relations we have mostly to dig much deeper than was originally anticipated. 28. 28.The concept of homology (cf. point 7) is discussed again. It is stated that recently attempts have been made to give it ontogenetical implications. Recent investigation in the biochemistry of meristems seem promising in this respect. 29. 29.Anatomical, ontogenetical, and in general static (one-time) data alone can never be conclusive towards the solution of phylogenetic problems, though theirevidence may be of outstanding importance when interpreted in a phylogenetic (dynamic) sense.
Summary Populations of Woodsia ilvensis Oblong Woodsia have been observed to decline at all the British sites. It has been suggested that drought might have accelerated this decline. In an experiment with cultivated Plants it was found that summer drought had a more severe effect than drought during the spring.
Summary Data are summarised that support the secondary contact-balanced hybridity of polyploid evolution in plants. This states that polyploids are most likely to arise and achieve initial success in regions where alternate isolation plus differentiation followed by reunion and hybridisation, in the broadest sense of the word, are most likely to occur. The initial polyploids vary greatly in their evolutionary success. With the passage of time, a small proportion of the original neopolyploids evolve into mesopolyploids, that are widespread, aggressive colonisers, and become abundant over a broad geographical and ecological range. Even later, some of these become diploidised. The resulting paleopolyploids are more like diploids than their original polyploid ancestors with respect to gene pools, geographical distribution and different ecological situations occupied in any region. These conclusions are well supported by a preliminary analysis of polyploidy in the flora of Alaskan Beringia, but more extensive and thorough analyses are needed. Additional data support the hypothesis that chromosome doubling by itself does not adapt plants to withstand severe ecological conditions, such as cold and drought. Finally, high chromosome numbers in some species of angiosperms, plus even higher numbers in a few groups of spore bearing vascular plants, indicate that there is no generally valid ceiling to chromosome numbers. Polyploidisation occurs in cycles. If favourable adjustments of gene dosage occur between cycles, later cycles can include multiplication of base numbers that are already polyploid with reference to the original number of the genus or family.
Summary Sixty-four species of coprophilous fungi were recorded from 42 herbivore dung samples collected in Orkney and Shetland in summer 2005. One, Ascobolus brantophilus, a high latitude species, is newly recorded for the UK and 13 and 28 species are newly recorded for Orkney and Shetland, respectively. The data obtained, with other records, are used to provide support for an earlier demonstration that the latitudinal gradient of species rich-ness, which declines with increasing latitude, can be observed by studying coprophilous fungi. Key words: ascomycetesBritish recordsdiversitylatitude gradient Selinia species richness
(2006). The grassland of Orkney: An œcological analysis. Botanical Journal of Scotland: Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 195-210.
Summary There has been a decline in the rare fern Woodsia ilvensis Oblong Woodsia in its few remaining British sites, with no regeneration recorded. As part of a UK BAP recovery programme four reintroductions have taken place into areas where this fern is no longer found; two near Moffat and two in Teesdale. The first reintroductions were made in 1999–2000 and they have now been monitored for up to six years. A good proportion of the Plants have established well, although no progeny have yet been produced.
Summary A new coprophilous species of Coniochaeta, C. burtii, with 512-spored asci, is described from deer dung from Glen Dochart, Perthshire. Key words: ascomycetesfimicolousfungipyrenomycetesSordariales
Summary The identity of a recent Scottish collection thought to be Boletopsis leucomelaena was examined with the help of molecular techniques. This poroid fungus proved to be a new species of Boletopsis differing from the European species occurring with Pinus sylvestris, which should continue to be called B. grisea. The new name Boletopsis peplexa is introduced for all the Scottish collections with Pinus sylvestris.
Commentary: Patricia Cochrane* This paper by an eminent member of the medical profession describes the botanical characteristics and medicinal properties of Cannabis sativa L. ssp. indica in some detail. During the twentieth century the possession and use of cannabis became illegal and little if any research into its value as a medicine took place. However, recent work (Pertwee, 2002; Zajicek et al. (2003); Rog et al. 2005) has shown that extracts of cannabis can relieve some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. It may therefore be of interest to look again at the medicinal properties ascribed to Cannabis sativa, ssp. indica in the pre-pharmaceutical industry era.
vulgaris.The broad surfaces of the
