Wild flowers flourish on Esplanade
Sir,
I read with great interest today both the editorial: ‘Lay off the Weedkiller’ and Judy Martin’s fine letter on the same subject.
It might interest readers who do not read the magazine of Kintyre Antiquarian and Natural History Society that some years ago, I wrote about Erinus alpinus, Fairy foxglove, discussing the spread of the plant in Kintyre.
If anyone wants to read that article it is in magazine number 55 on page 22. It might also be of interest that on Christmas Day 2016, I saw a couple of flowers of this very attractive wee plant on a wall at the east end of Argyll and a Christmas Fairy foxglove is certainly a first in my botanical life.
Further to Mrs Martin’s letter, I hope most sincerely that the breast wall along the Esplanade will not be sprayed with weedkiller for among the so-called weeds there are some interesting plants for people who are willing to look.
Some years ago, my friend Ian Teesdale discovered a fine show of Black medick, Medicago lupulino there and this year, I was pleased to see that this plant colony had spread considerably.
Also along the breast wall
there are two substantial plants of Sea beet, Beta vulgaris ssp maritima.
Neither of the two plants mentioned is particularly rare, but neither is particularly common in Kintyre.
Mrs Martin wrote about the Buddleia which grows there being attractive to bees and butterflies, and the same can be said of the Sea radish, Raphanus raphanistrum ssp maritimum.
This plant is very common on all our shores but the insects
love it and these same insects are not only attractive, but are necessary for our continued survival.
Truly we must lay off the weedkiller. Agnes R Stewart, 7 Ramsay Place, Campbeltown.