Some Notes on Erica "Mediterranea"

Some Notes on Erica "Mediterranea"Author(s): David McClintockSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 16, No. 6 (Apr., 1969), pp. 154-158Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25537291 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 02:55

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The IrishNaturalists' Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.21 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:55:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=inj

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25537291?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


154

SOME NOTES ON ERICA "MEDITERRANEA"

David McClintock

In April, 1968, the Heather Society ran a successful expedition to W. Ireland primarily to see Erica mediterranea in flower. (I use the name mediterranea for this plant because it is the best known. I am aware however that it strictly belongs to E. carnea (herbacea); and I am also aware that the proposed alternative, E. hibernica, is now known to have been antedated). Since no full report seems to

have been made on this plant generally, it may be worth surveying something of its present distribution and well-being.

Distribution

Mr P. J. O'Hare of the Peatland Research Station at Glenamoy has over the past 10 years or so dotted in on a ^-inch map all the places he had seen

this heather north of Gweesalia. Inevitably it was not possible to achieve anything like such detailed coverage in the south. Nevertheless the Heather Society's

expedition (on which at one time or another a score of people took part) plus, and

often confirming, some notes I myself made on earlier visits to the area, notably on a similar trip in the first week of April, 1966 (McClintock, 1966), should give a fair idea of quantity and quality there. I shall take the areas from south to

north, starting with the locality where it was first noticed, out of bloom of course, in late September, 1830 by J. T. Mackay. This is at present the only place known

for it in Co. Galway: all the others are in Co. Mayo.

Urrisbeg The plant is still very locally plentiful north of the saddle between the

two hills, in a hollow from about 450 ft down a stream to, and by L. Nalawney. In 1968 the bushes often bore no flower at all and were in miserable condition?

foliage dull and often apparently dying.

KlLLARY

There are records from the south side of the harbour entrance, from

about Salruck Pass and between Kylemore and Killary. The likely area near the

coast was examined on both trips, in vain. The causes could include the increase

of cultivation, and sheep. Prof Webb has searched the hills above without success. Immediately to the north of the harbour mouth in Co. Mayo this heather

grows in great quantity, Prof Webb tells me, on the south-west and west-south-west

flanks of Mweelrea, ascending to about 400 ft and fanning out widely near the

sea all over the moraine: certainly its second largest station in Ireland. It is

also at Dooaghtry. (Praeger, 1911).

Clare Island

Here it is still in fair quantity and condition. The locality is a mile or

so north of the harbour extending over perhaps 400 yards of the steep slope, as

reported in the Clare Island Survey. Intelligent local information said that there

were no plants anywhere else.

L. Furnace

The plant is abundant on the fringes of much, but not all, of this lake and

by smaller lakes and streams to the west. It needed much more time than we had

to record where exactly it was and was not, let alone to guess the cause of this

uneven distribution. Its condition varied from fair to fine. Two miles to the west,

by Carrowsallagh Bridge, just to the south of the main road, a few plants were

seen growing down a stream.



155

Mulrany/Bellacragher Bay/ Curraun Here is the greatest abundance of this plant, its area petering out about

the north entrance to the Bay, while in Curraun it seems very local?three colonies

only were noted, all on the south coast. (Prof Webb also recorded it from Belfarsad in 1955 : Miss R. M. White (1968) gives further data from this peninsula). It grows from the sea-shore in places up to 500 ft or more. This and Mweelrea

being apparently the only areas it is not strictly a low-level shrub. Its habitat varies from very wet tall scrub to dry open hillside. Parts of the colony must

frequently get wetted or even drenched by salt spray, but probably the water at the roots is always from above and fresh.

One plant I measured and photographed in the scrub in 1966 reached 9 ft 9 in (I have it all but 10 ft in my garden). On the exposed hillside opposite, at about 200 ft in a shallow hollow with old moss-encrusted decumbent stems, one,

measured practically at random, reached 8 ft and the circumference of a stem was about 6 in. Under these ancient bushes were flowering wood anemone,

celandine, wood sorrel and violet; and bluebells and Brachypodium sylvaticum were there too, all looking even better than they can under bracken.

One brae had been burnt in 1966. The gaunt dead stems rose 3-4 ft but

every one of them had vigorous (and flowering) growth from the base; while the

opening of the habitat had enabled seedlings to appear, locally in plenty.

Achill Island

The records of the plant from Achill (except for one of Prof Webb's in

1957, near Mweelin Lake) seem to be from the north coast and the plant never to

be in quantity. In 1966 it was seen in the stream running south into L. Nakeeroge (its most westerly locality) and near Dugort. In 1968 the search in the north-east

could not see it anywhere, e.g., near Ridge Point, Cashel and Bull's Mouth.

Achill Sound and Blacksod Bay

According to the records the plant should be plentiful, especially near

the sea along the east coast. The area was only very sketchily visited, but the

impression was that there was not much to be seen.

Erris

This is an area of Mr OUare's detailed observations. They include

colonies, or single plants, dotted up the road and the coast, but none seemed to

come nearer to Bangor than about two miles to the west. It grows in two places in the south of the Glenamoy Research area, one covering nearly 2 acres. To the

north of the cross-roads at Burnatra there are rounded 18-in hummocks both sides

of the road, the lower ones apparently in salt-laden turf, which have intrigued me since I first found them, in 1957.

L. Carrowmore

This lake had its level lowered in the early 1950s, Mr O'Hare tells me,

the resulting bare area being colonized in places by seedlings which however

seem to make relatively slow growth. The plant extends continuously for about

two miles down the western side of the lake and for much of the distance the

zoning is very clearly defined?shore, heather and ling in strict strips. Very little

of the heather grows west of the road. It is said it flowers well only one year in

five and certainly this colony was much poorer in 1968 than in 1966, with each

time many fewer flowers on the north, the exposed side of the shrubs.

Mullet

There are scattered localities north of Belmullet, but the plant is never

plentiful, and in particular was not seen at Cam Nash. Cloneen is its most



156

northerly known locality in the world. Praeger (1905) records it also west of Belmullet.

L. Conn

The small colony by the pier at Enniscoe House, whence MacKay sent

specimens to MacNab at Edinburgh in 1837 (McClintock, 1966) is doing well.

That on the Errew Peninsula is much larger, but generally in dismal condition.

Mr O'Hare knows it also in two places in cut-over peat 5-6 miles NNE of

Crossmolina. Dr. Praeger (1900) found half-a-dozen plants opposite Annagh Island

later from "about the middle" of the east side of the lake. The area for some

two miles was searched (by walking and using field-glasses) but none of it even

looked right. Prof Webb looked here in vain about 1956; others later in 1968.

The level of this lake too was lowered, in 1967, but this cannot be the

cause of the plant's non-appearance, for not even dead bushes were seen. But

the point must be made both here and throughout this note, that the fact that we did not see a plant anywhere does not mean that we did not miss it or that, if the habitat is right, it may not return. Moreover it is quite easily overlooked,

especially in isolated bushes.

L. Beltra

There is still a good colony covering a J-mile or so towards the south end

of the west side of this lake and also on the land side of the ro^ad in a young

forestry plantation. Prof Webb has seen it at the extreme south end.

Variation

One, but only one, of the objects of the expedition was to look out for

garden-worthy forms. Few if any have been added to nurserymen's lists for a

generation. In the end, twigs for cuttings were collected from about half-a-dozen

plants. The fact was that no more were seen which did not fall within the range of plants at present in cultivation. The exceptions may be of interest botanically as well.

1. An old bush by the road by L. Furnace, presumably very late

flowering, with most distinctive pinkish fawn buds (incidentally no bushes were

seen which seemed to have flowered at all markedly earlier, and most of the

plants were at the peak of their blooming, well ahead of their counterparts in

English gardens). 2. Another old bush high on Urrisbeg with lemon-yellow foliage, which

did not seem to be due to any deficiency or ill-health. A similar but less marked form was seen on the cliffs of Clare Island.

3. A small, rich, dark-flowered and-foliaged plant from near the Salmon Research Station on L. Furnace. What the ultimate height of this, or any other

plant, is in cultivation, can only be known after years.

4. Close by, was a very pale form with narrow tapering spikes and erect

branches, looking very spruce and neat.

5. A large, 4 ft bush above Bellacragher Bay quite level-topped, with no

flowers on its side shoots.

6. In 1966, two plants were seen towards the north end of Carrowmore

Lake with pure pink flowers. These have been successfully propagated and, like

all the others, have not altered in cultivation.

7. A white-flowered plant found by Mrs O'Hare by Bellacragher Bay



in 1955, which still survived in 1968. I know only two other records of white flowered plants of this species from Ireland, in 1852 (Moore) and 1892 (Shcridun).

8. The Clare Islahd Survey records the plants there had very pale flowers, the corollas practically white with pink edges. None could be seen like

this, and the knowledgeable local crofter had never seen one, although there were

normal pale forms there.

9. The records, from Moore (1852) onwards, report that plants from

Erris and Achill are dwarfer and darker coloured than elsewhere, but there seems

no basis, today at any rate, for this statement. All colonies of any size had

plants with flowers varying from dark to so pale that a lens was needed to be sure

they were not white.

Ecology

Our brains were much cudgelled to guess why this heather grew by one

stream and not the next, by one side of a lake and not the other, and with such

marked discontinuities in its general area. The anomalies seemed endless, above

all when its range of tolerance appeared so great, growing high and low, sheltered

and exposed, on limestone, boulder clay and peat (up to 18 ft deep Mr O'Hare

told me), in very wet to bare dry soil, in fresh to at least brackish, if not saline,

water, facing north, south, east or west. Why is such an apparently adaptable plant so local?

I do not think the answer can be known until a detailed examination has

been made of it and its habitats and non-habitats, to reveal perhaps a restrictive

dispersal mechanism or an essential trace element. It is probably true that it

prefers a soil just slightly more base-rich than the rest of the moor (O'Hare, 1959). Thus, during a five-mile walk on Clare Island, only in its colony (where I could

be only J-hour or I would have made more observations) did I see Schoenus

nigricans, Epilobium nerteriodes and the Lusitanian marsh dandelion Taraxacum

lainzii (det. A. J. Richards).

Its condition varied immensely from area to area and sometimes even

within an area, some bushes sere and flowerless, other burgeoning purple and green. Where it looked particularly unhappy there were often no seedlings and the

prospects looked gloomy: indeed seedlings were usually rare. On the other hand, the experience after the fire at Bellacragher Bay may have some useful lessons.

The causes of lack of seedlings could include shading from the parents, plus

perhaps a lack of open habitats to assist establishment, as well as the nibbling by the ever-present sheep. But what has caused a considerable number of bushes to

look so dejected could usually only be conjectured. In one or two places however the effects of exposure could clearly be seen, one side of the bush being bare and flowerless and the other in good health.

Two pointers to its well-being were noted. One was the fire at

Bellacragher Bay which seems to have done the colony nothing but good. The

other was at Lake Beltra, and on the east side of Bellacragher Bay, where there were young conifer plantations about six years old. The heather had seeded into

these and grown superbly?so far; for young plants are more floriforous. To what extent the original opening up of the habitat for planting the conifers and to what

extent the protection from sheep in these plantations fostered the plant, experiment alone can show. But even outside such areas some of the older taller plants were

still superb, for example one bush on the exposed cliff on Clare Island, which

still reached 5 ft 8 in.



158

Comment has already been made on the zoning by L. Carrowmore. In

many other areas a similar exclusiveness was noticed between the two species: frequently it was a case of either the Erica or Calluna. This was often caused by the Calluna being in the drier parts, but not always, because in many places the

Erica was growing in, apparently, dry soil. We were however there in 1968 after a dry spell, and it could be that these places which were then dry were normally very much wetter and had at least some form of moving water fairly close to the

surface. No insect visitors were noted at all, perhaps because the busy expedition found no time to stand and stare.

I am very grateful to Mr P. J. O'Hare, Prof D. A. Webb and Mr A. W.

Stelfox for giving much help with these notes.

Bracken Hill, Piatt, Kent.

REFERENCES

McClintock, D. (1966). The Irish Heather. Gardeners Chronicle, September 14, p. 12.

Moore, D. (1852). On the Distribution of Erica mediterranea var hibernica Phytologist, 4:

597-8.

O'Hare, P. J. (1959). "An Ecological Study ... in Co. Mayo". M.Agr.Sc. Thesis, unpublished.

Praeger, R. LI. (1900). Round Lough Conn. Ir. Nat., 9: 226-7.

-(1905). The Flora of Mullet. Ir. Nat., 14: 229. -?

(1911). A Note on Dooaghtry. Ir. Nat., 20: 193-4.

-(1911). Clare Island Survey. Proc. R. Ir. Acad., 31 (10): 16 and 30.

Sheridan, J. R. (1892). in:More, A. G. Life and Letters. Edit. C. B. Moffatt. Dublin,

1898, p. 372.

Webb, D. A. (1954). Notes on Four Irish Heaths. Ir. Nat. J., 11 (8): 217-9.

White, R. M. (1968). Vegetation of the Curraun. Ir. Nat. J., 16 (3): 59 and 61.

A LIST OF MARINE ALGAE FROM THE WEXFORD COAST

H. M. Parkes and M. J. P. Scannell

William Tighe's paper of 1803 on "Maritime Plants, observed on the coast of the County of Wexford", was one of the earliest lists of Irish marine algae to be published for the south-east coast of Ireland and indeed for the entire country (Adams, 1908). Tighe recorded 58 marine and 2 freshwater species of algae in

August 1802 from near Fethard on the eastern side of the Hook Head Peninsula. William Tighe lived at Woodstock, Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny, a distance of about

20 miles from Fethard. He is the author of "Statistical Observations Relative to

the County of Kilkenny made in the year 1800 and 1801", dedicated to the Dublin

Society in 1802. In his paper Tighe thanked Dr Robert Scott, at that time Professor of Botany at Trinity College, Dublin for help in determination of the Confervae. Tighe's specimens have not been located in any of the three Dublin herbaria (DBN, DUB & TCD) but since the word "observed" is incorporated in the title of the paper it is possible that the specimens have not been preserved.

Though W. H. Harvey did work on the county Wicklow coast (Harvey in Mackay, 1836) there is no evidence in the relevant literature to suggest that he

visited the Wexford area.

In 1875 the Reverend Eugene O'Meara, who specialized in freshwater



Documents

Some Notes on Erica "Mediterranea"