A Lusitanian plant on the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry

This is one of the most interesting and exciting plants we found on the holiday. It's a butterwort, but the leaves are very big (at least 10cm rosette diameter) and quite pale. From the size of the leaves alone, I think that it has to be large-flowered butterwort, which I've seen before in the Pyrenees but which in the British Isles grows only in South West Ireland, and mainly in Kerry, where it's not uncommon in the correct habitat. This individual was growing at the side of the road on a high mountain pass just above Dingle town.

However, it's main interest is that it belongs to a unique group of plants known as the Lusitanian flora. This is a group of Mediterranean plants native to Ireland but mainly absent from Britain that come originally from the Iberian Peninsula. I've known about the Lusitanian flora for many years, and it was a real thrill to actually find one for myself!

Dingle Peninsula.

From the Holyhead to Dublin Ferry

Arctic Skua.

Gannet.

Manx shearwaters.

Incredible structural variation. The bird above looks bulkier, bull necked and large headed compared to the more streamline bird below.

Is it a sooty? No just another Manxie.

Miscellaneous photos from Ireland

Bar-tailed godwit. Not completely in focus but I like this picture.

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare

Inish More, Aran Islands

The Plassey shipwreck, Aran Islands. You may recognise this from the opening sequence of Father Ted!

 Rossbeigh Strand.

Ring of Kerry.

Malltreath, Anglesey

Little egret 4
Redshank 50
Curlew 30

South Stack, Anglesey

Chough 2
Stonechat 4

Lough Bunny, the Burren, County Clare

Mountain everlasting

Grass of Parnassus

Irish Eyebright

Devil's bit scabious

Sea plantain
Golden rod

Just a very brief stop at Lough Bunny.

Mullagh More, the Burren, County Clare

Shrubby cinquefoil
Mountain aven (some in flower)

O'Kelly's spotted orchid 1
Irish eyebright
Mountain everlasting
Devil's bit scabious
Grass of Parnassus

Autumn fellwort    

Dark red helleborine (over)
Broad-leaved helleborine (over)  
Golden rod
Harebell
Spindle
Rusty back fern
Wood sage
Burnet rose (a few in flower and one with robins pin cushion)
Ladies bedstraw    
Blue Moor grass
Wall lettuce
Bloody cranesbill
Quaking grass        
Yellow wort
Birds foot trefoil
Northern bedstraw
Sea plantain
Yellow rattle

Purple moor grass

Whilst searching for Father Ted's house, we stumbled across a series of footpaths leading up to the remarkable Mullagh More, which is surely as much a geologists paradise as it is a botanists. At its heart is the amazing lough Gealain, which is part permanent lake and part turlough (i.e a lake fed by groundwater).

The flowers in this area are fantastic, and I was surprised to see so many given that in other areas most seemed to be over. Highlights for me were the shrubby cinquefoil and the mountain avens, a few of which of the latter were in flower, whilst the former seemed in full flower. Another good find was O'Kelly's spotted orchid, a Burren speciality, which some authorities treat as a distinct species, but which is more generally considered as a variety of common spotted orchid. An amazing place, where it's possible to see mountain everlasting growing side by side with sea plantain!