Search for Scotland's rare and endangered mountain plants

Botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh (RBGE) are trying to find out where three rare and endangered species of plants grow in Scotland. In doing so they have requested the help of climbers and hillwalkers to report the sightings so that they can be better studied. The Cicerbita alpina (alpine blue-sowthistle), Saxifraga cespitosa (tufted saxifrage) and Alectoria ochroleuca (alpine sulphur tresses) are under threat of extinction and protected by law. These alpine plants are particularly vulnerable to climate change and the general trend for milder winters has left some of Scotland’s rarest mountain plants at risk.  

The plants are seen as relics of Scotland’s post-glacial landscape that emerged at the end of the last Ice Age. Nowadays climbers and hillwalkers are the only people likely to encounter these three plants, which is why the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE), which is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, is working with Mountaineering Scotland on the project. Monitoring and protection is seen as very important in helping these plants and lichen to survive into the future. RBGE has been collecting seeds from the plants in an effort to save the species. Further information can be obtained from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh website. They have asked the mountaineering community to send details of observations to raremountainplants@rbge.org.uk, but they have stressed the need to avoid disturbing and damaging the plants and their fragile habitats.