2023 Scotland Glen Coe Hawkweeds - July

A couple of days of hawkweeds around Kinlochleven and Glencoe 17th - 20th July

In the town itself Hieracium triviale was common on the walls but almost all plants were very munched by deer. The flower heads are smaller and tend to show less simple and more glandular hairs. The leaf shape remains distinctive.

Along the river and along some of the river footpaths, Hieracium subcrocatum from section Foliosa was common. Very dark styles and large flower head. There were 2 distinct types, one with more oval leaves and nearer the water it tended to have more linear leaves. BB:"Not enough longer simple hairs for strictiforme on bracts etc.

H subcrocatum can have occasional to few simple on the bracts.(And also more rarely on the peduncles)"

In the car park behind the post office there was yellow styled Hieracium latobrigorum (now lanceolatifolium) some plants lacking the distinctive veined rhomboid leaves and having more plain ovate leaves. BB: "a variable plant in leaf shape, even in a single colony"

On the 18th July I explored along the B863 and found some Hieracium sparsifolium. A member of section Tridentata with spotted leaves. More munched triviale on the small roadside cliffs.

Had some time at Glencoe Mountain Resort on 19/7/2023. Near the car park there was more Hieracium triviale and Hieracium lanceolatifolium.

I headed up the ski lift and to the top of Meall a' Bhuiridh. Growing on the south facing rocks at 1050metres, with its chunky flower heads, yellow styles and lustrous hairy green leaves was a patch of Hieracium alpinum

Nearby was a single dark styled, slender, Hieracium tenuifrons nestled next to an old iron pipe

Walking back down to the top of Allt nan Giuthas stream, plants from section Subalpina were at NN25966169. Hieracium lingulatum with its narrow glaucous hairy leaves. "This one of the most common of the Sub-alpina Group. Sell got the length of the glandular hairs wrong. Most are short, but a few can be up to around 0.8mm or occasionally longer."

The next plant I looked at was a mystery subalpina, it could be callistophyllum although the leaves were hairy and slightly glaucous with more rounded / sub-truncate at the base and less pronounced teeth. There were some stellate hairs along the edges of the obtuse bracts.

A little further down the endemic Hieracium ochthophilum was numerous. With glabrous glaucous leaves and large dark styled flowers.BB:"slightly more vigorous than the one I collected nearby with larger teeth, but it matches very well even so."

The other frequent hawkweed at the top of the gully was Hieracium callistophyllum. BB:"This has a few large heads, sharp regular teeth along the leaves and few very short glandular hairs on the bracts and peduncles. Both dasythrix and kingshousense have small heads and lack the regular teeth ". Leaves had cuneate bases

There was a patch of section Alpina near the top of the gully but all were over. They matched Hieracium holosericum

I will have to return a week earlier in 2024.

Our last day was in Edinburgh and along the road next to Waverley Station was a strange plant from section Sabauda - although very early in flower. Its leaves were long and lanceolate mid stem and the bracts glabrous. It was determined as Hieracium sabaudum var. bladonii BB:"This is a form where the heads are similar to vagum. This form without both glandular and simple is not mentioned directly by Sell or Vincent although Vincent does mention this indirectly in the intermediate plant he covers. MW has found similar plants near Bradford. Sabaudum is more variable than we realised and grades into vagum."