"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

26 May 2007

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather and the seasons, plus the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. This separate "colour supplement" displays some more pictures, in a larger format. Here is this week's crop of Scottish views!


This magnificent late flowering magnolia is in an out-of-the-way corner of the woodland area attached to Glendoick House in Perthshire, between Perth and Dundee.


Glendoick is not only famous for its rhododendrons and azaleas, but also for its collection of mecanopsis - the Himalayan poppy. The woodland area has a number of different varieties, including various shades of yellow, white and the blue.


The flowers of the Potentilla shrub resemble small, wild roses, and the abundant blooms last through the summer. The flowers are only about an inch across.





The Handkerchief Tree is easy to recognise as long as its unusual flowers are visible. The correct botanical name is "Davidia" and it is also known as the Chinese dove tree. Since seedlings can take 10-20 years to flower, new plants are often created by layering low-growing branches in the ground so that they take root.


Another tree with an apt name because of its bell-shaped flowers - the Snowdrop Tree. It is a native of south-east USA. Its correct botanical name is Halesia.


Xerophyllum Tenax or "Bear Grass" or "Indian basket grass" is a native of western North America from British Columbia south to California and east to Wyoming, in sub-alpine meadows and coastal mountains. It is most unusual to find it growing in Scotland. They have tried growing the plant from seed at Glendoick, but so far without success.


It was the loud cheeping that drew our attention to this fluffy, baby sparrow, waiting impatiently to be fed on the roof of the Glendoick Garden Centre!


For those of you who disagreed with my description of the Coot chicks as "ugly" in last week's Colour Supplement, here is another picture of these "good looking" youngsters...

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page





Where else would you like to go in Scotland?








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