Islay Natural History Trust: Killinallan the final summer dune delight

My anticipated final opportunity of the season to show people the amazing floral display at Killinallan was looking like being thwarted by RAIN! again, another damp Sunday.

However I had already been out there on the Thursday before for our 'Mini-wildlife Adventure' and knew there was much to see. The rain was however going to clear not far off 2pm so I waited and low and behold a determined family arrived to participate on the walk...hurrah! And five minutes past 2 it was dry.

Across the saltmarsh were a few new species in flower since last visit, Sea Spurrey which had been flowering on Thursday was now thin on the ground though I did find one in flower. The full moon has brought on some high tides which I expect has knocked the flowers back. There was a nice amount of Glasswort, once you got your eye in and still flowering were the Sea Arrow-grass which tastes of coriander and not to be confused with the sea plantain which has some equally non-descript flowers.

Glasswort

Sea Spurrey

Sea Arrow-grass

Sea Plantain

Harebell

In the dunes the carpet of colour was interspersed since July's visit with a peppering of blue and purple flowers which weren't out a month ago; Harebell, Devil's bit Scabious and Autumn Gentian.

Devil's Bit Scabious

Many of the orchids were now passed however there were plenty of Frog orchid still well in flower and through the wetter dune slack area we still saw a range of quality blooms of the Common Twayblade and after a bit of searching we did find some remaining flowers of the Marsh Helleborine although these were definitely past their splendour of early July.

Common Twayblade

A large Frog Orchid developing large seed pods

It was a windy day so capturing the flowers in mid sway was a little tricky and insects were few, but enjoy the display and if you have some spare time for a walk get along to the dunes in the next week or so, to soak up the splendour of flowers in the back end of the season.