GALLERY
Category: FORBS
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Where and when encountered: Cromdale on 19 August 2021
About: Yarrow can be found in a large variety of grassland habitats throughout Great Britain. The plant grows in most soils, with exceptions being those that are extremely nutrient-poor, strongly acidic, or permanently waterlogged.
Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica)
Where and when encountered: Glenbeg Estate on 31 August 2021
About: A plant of damp or wet ground, sneezewort flowers from summer through to early autumn and can be found across much of Great Britain.
Bugle (Ajuga reptans)
Where and when encountered: Dulnain Bridge on 3 June 2022
About: Bugle can be found growing in most parts of Great Britain. The plant's preferred habitats include damp woodland and unimproved grassland.
Alpine lady's-mantle (Alchemilla alpina)
Where and when encountered: Cairn Gorm lower slopes on 17 June 2022
About: Alpine lady's-mantle is a plant most often found in montane grassland and rocky places. Other than a significant population in the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands encompass almost all of the plant's recorded distribution in Great Britain.
Jack-by-the-hedge (Alliaria petiolata)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 13 June 2024
About: Jack-by-the-hedge can be found growing in most parts of Great Britain, although there are few records from upland habitats in northern Scotland. The plant thrives in soils that are relatively fertile and moist and avoids only the most acidic of ground.
Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa)
Where and when encountered: Insh Community Forest on 22 April 2023
About: Wood anemone can be found growing in almost all parts of Great Britain. The plant is a perennial with a wide pH tolerance and can be encountered in various habitats, with woodland being most typical.
Kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 26 June 2024
About: Kidney vetch is a perennial herb of open situations as diverse as rocky outcrops, sand dunes, and shingle. Widespread roadside planting in recent decades has obscured the natural distribution of this plant.
Lesser burdock (Arctium minus)
Where and when encountered: Castle Grant on 29 July 2024
About: Lesser burdock – a perennial herb of banks, field borders, woodland, and other habitats – can be found from the far north to the far south of Great Britain.
Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
Where and when encountered: Abernethy Forest on 16 August 2021
About: Harebell is a common species in grassy habitat across much of Great Britain. Flowering typically occurs between June and October.
Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis)
Where and when encountered: Speybridge on 4 May 2024
About: Cuckooflower can be found throughout Great Britain in grassy, seasonally waterlogged places. In the uplands, the plant also grows in bryophyte-rich spring-watered soils and in rush pasture.
Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Where and when encountered: Cromdale on 19 August 2021
About: Common knapweed can be found growing across the length and breadth of Great Britain. The plant is a generous producer of nectar, and the seeds are among the favoured foods of goldfinches.
Rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium)
Where and when encountered: Cromdale on 19 August 2021
About: Known in some English-speaking places as 'fireweed', on account of the species' proclivity to colonize recently burned forest patches, rosebay willowherb forms dense stands on disturbed ground in a variety of situations across Great Britain, including, to name just one, the margins of disused railways. In upland areas, the plant thrives on rock ledges and scree accumulations.
Opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 13 April 2024
About: Opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage can be encountered in most parts of Great Britain and has a preference for wet shaded ground around springs or flushes.
Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense)
Where and when encountered: Cromdale on 19 August 2021
About: Creeping thistle can be found in fields and waysides in almost every corner of Great Britain and is so called on account of the plant's ability to spread vegetatively through underground parts. Creeping thistle plants are generous nectar sources and also support many species through their foliage, stems, and seeds.
Melancholy thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 26 June 2022
About: In Great Britain, melancholy thistle is generally restricted to upland habitats, such as those in the Scottish Highlands. They grow along woodland edges, in damp meadows, and by the sides of streams and rivers.
Marsh thistle (Cirsium palustre)
Where and when encountered: Uath Lochans on 13 June 2022
About: Marsh thistle can be found throughout Great Britain. As the name suggests, the plant generally grows in damp places.
Spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare)
Where and when encountered: Blair Athol on 9 June 2024
About: Spear thistle can be encountered in most corners of Great Britain, with classic habitats including heavily grazed pastures and rough grassland.
Pignut (Conopodium majus)
Where and when encountered: Abernethy Forest on 22 June 2021
About: Pignuts have edible tubers (hence their name) and grow in a range of habitats across Great Britain. Their umbels are a popular dining spot for hoverflies and other nectar- and pollen-feeding invertebrates.
Editor's note: Pignut occurs with some abundance in certain hay meadows in the north of Great Britain. The plant photographed here was one among a stand of many thousands in such a meadow.
Dwarf cornel (Cornus suecica)
Where and when encountered: Cairn Gorm lower slopes on 17 June 2022
About: Dwarf cornel is a low-growing plant of wet, non-alkaline, peaty soils at moderate to high altitudes. In Great Britain, the plant is almost entirely confined to the Scottish Highlands.
Heath spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata)
Where and when encountered: Craigellachie NNR on 27 June 2022
About: Heath spotted-orchid is absent from large parts of central and eastern England but otherwise widely distributed in Great Britain. The plant generally prefers acidic soils and can be found growing on moorland, on heathland, in grassland, and in flushes and bogs.
Northern marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 8 June 2025
About: Northern marsh orchids are a perennial herb with a preference for neutral soils in a wide range of drier and wetter habitats. Almost all records for the species in Great Britain come from Wales, northern England, and Scotland.
Editor's note: I am reasonably confident of the species identification of the plant photographed.
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 23 June 2022
About: Foxglove can be found throughout Great Britain and generally favours acidic soils. The plant can occur in great abundance on recently disturbed ground, such as felled-forest clearings.
Leopard's-bane (Doronicum pardalianches)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 7 June 2022
About: Leopard's-bane has been cultivated in Great Britain since the sixteenth century and is now widely naturalized at lower elevations in shady places.
Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)
Where and when encountered: Foal's Well on 1 September 2022
About: Round-leaved sundew is a rosette-forming, insectivorous plant of damp acidic heathland and moorland, bogs, and upland flushes. Insects get stuck to the plant's glandular tentacles and are dissolved by enzymatic action, compensating for otherwise poor nutrient availability in the plant's typical locales.
Common whitlowgrass (Erophila verna agg)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 3 April 2023
About: Common whitlowgrass can be found in most corners of Great Britain, typically in dry open areas on rock or shallow soils.
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 22 June 2024
About: Meadowsweet – a plant with a widespread distribution in Great Britain – is a perennial herb with a preference for wet habitats with fluctuating water levels and an intolerance of permanent waterlogging, grazing, and shade.
Heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile)
Where and when encountered: Abernethy Forest on 23 June 2022
About: Heath bedstraw is a low-growing plant of acidic grassland, heathland, open woodland, and rocky places. The plant occurs in most corners of Great Britain but is particularly abundant in upland areas. Since heath bedstraw thrives in infertile soil, the species provides a useful indication of unimproved grassland.
Wood crane's-bill (Geranium sylvaticum)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 11 June 2025
About: Wood crane's-bill is a perennial herb – encountered in a range of habitats that includes hay meadows, ungrazed damp woodlands and streamsides – with a mostly upland distribution.
Water avens (Geum rivale)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 6 May 2025
About: Water avens – a flower of slow-draining or wet soils, including by streams and flushes – can be found across most of Great Britain but is absent from large parts of south-east England.
Creeping lady's-tresses (Goodyera repens)
Where and when encountered: Glenmore Forest Park on 28 July 2023
About: The orchid creeping lady's-tresses grows in the herb layer of coniferous woodland, especially that of Scots pine, and has a preference for slight-to-moderate shade in moist moss and needles. Caledonian pine forest in the Scottish Highlands contains most of the remaining core populations of this species.
Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
Where and when encountered: Blair Athol on 9 June 2024
About: Hogweed can be found in a wide range of habitats across the length and breadth of Great Britain. The plant's flowers provide a rich feeding ground for numerous species of invertebrates.
Hop (Humulus lupulus)
Where and when encountered: Speybridge on 13 June 2024
About: The hop is widespread across England and Wales and more scattered in Scotland. Damp open woodland, fen-carr, and hedges are favoured habitats, but the plant may also be found growing wild elsewhere, including in urban areas, as an escape from cultivation. Separating native plants from relics of cultivation is a very challenging task, but it is thought that Scotland lacks truly wild hops.
Editor's note: From a human perspective, the hop – in my humble opinion – is one of nature's finest creations.
Marsh pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris)
Where and when encountered: Rothiemurchus Estate on 13 September 2022
About: Marsh pennywort is a mat-forming perennial herb found in various damp habitats across Great Britain, including carr woodland, bogland, and marshland.
Slender St John's-wort (Hypericum pulchrum)
Where and when encountered: Invereshie and Inshriach NNR on 2 July 2022
About: Slender St John's-wort can be found growing on heathland and in open woodland on non-calcareous soils across most of Great Britain.
Bitter-vetch (Lathyrus linifolius)
Where and when encountered: Rothiemurchus Estate on 16 June 2022
About: Found in most parts of Great Britain, except central England and East Anglia, this perennial herb favours soils that are moist, infertile, and non-alkaline, including those in heathy meadows, on grassy banks, and in open woodlands.
Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 6 August 2024
About: Oxeye daisy is a widespread plant in Great Britain, being found in a wide range of grassland habitats, especially those with well-drained soil that is base-rich or neutral.
Twinflower (Linnaea borealis)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 3 June 2024
About: Twinflower is a creeping perennial of pine woodland (and, occasionally, birch woodland or previously wooded sites). Most populations in the plant's core range – the eastern Highlands of Scotland – consist of isolated patches of a small number of clones, where there are only limited prospects of seed production.
Editor's note: Conservation work is being carried out to transplant clones into new patches, with the hope of restoring natural seed production.
Common bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
Where and when encountered: Inshriach Forest on 1 July 2022
About: Common bird's-foot trefoil can be found growing in a variety of grassland, woodland, and montane habitats in most corners of Great Britain.
Ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 29 June 2022
About: Ragged-robin grows in damp habitat and can be found in almost every corner of Great Britain.
Yellow pimpernel (Lysimachia nemorum)
Where and when encountered: Glenmore Forest Park on 24 June 2024
About: Yellow pimpernel is an evergreen perennial of herb-rich woodland, old hedges, damp grassland, and other habitats. The plant can be found in most parts of Great Britain.
Common cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense)
Where and when encountered: Sluggan (Carrbridge) on 27 June 2024
About: A partial parasite on other plants, common cow-wheat is found across much of Great Britain in open woodland and scrubland and on heathland and moorland.
Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata)
Where and when encountered: Uath Lochans on 4 September 2023
About: Bogbean favours bogs, marshes, and shallow waters. The plant's trifoliate leaves resemble the foliage of broad beans, hence the vernacular name. The species can be found throughout Great Britain.
One-flowered wintergreen (Moneses uniflora)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 20 June 2024
About: One-flowered wintergreen is a wildflower of pinewoods with a Great British distribution almost entirely restricted to the Scottish Highlands, including the Cairngorms National Park. Like other true wintergreens, the plant supplements photosynthesis by deriving energy from soil fungus.
Bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 9 July 2022
About: Away from lowland England, bog asphodel can be found in many parts of Great Britain. The plant thrives in wet soils, is intolerant of heavy shade, and, while slightly toxic, may be significantly affected by grazing in the uplands.
Lesser twayblade (Neottia cordata)
Where and when encountered: Cairn Gorm lower slopes on 24 June 2024
About: Lesser twayblade is an often-overlooked herb of habitats such as wet heath, blanket bog, and carr woodland.
Editor's note: Although not photographed here within a native pinewood setting, that is one of the other habitats where this small orchid can be found growing.
Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)
Where and when encountered: Abernethy Forest on 29 June 2022
About: Wood sorrel can be found in most parts of Great Britain. The plant generally favours moist shady places but also grows in rough montane grassland and on rock ledges. Wood sorrel can be found growing among shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, such as blaeberry and cowberry.
Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica)
Where and when encountered: Rothiemurchus Estate on 19 May 2025
About: Lousewort is a partially parasitic herb of acidic soil and may be encountered in a range of wet habitats across most of Great Britain, including damp grassy heaths and the drier parts of bogs.
Alpine bistort (Persicaria vivipara)
Where and when encountered: Tulloch on 8 June 2025
About: Alpine bistort is a perennial herb with a preference for base-rich soils in habitats such as montane pastures and upland flushes. The Scottish Highlands cover the majority of the plant's distribution in Great Britain.
Fox-and-cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 20 June 2022
About: Fox-and-cubs is native to certain montane regions of Europe and was introduced to Great Britain as a garden plant at least as early as the seventeenth century. The plant is known to have escaped into the wild before the end of the eighteenth century and can now be found across most of the country, thriving in a range of places including churchyards and railway and roadside banks.
Mouse-ear-hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 25 May 2025
About: Mouse-ear-hawkweed, a widespread species in Great Britain, is a perennial herb of dry habitats such as short grassland, heathlands, and scree.
Common butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris)
Where and when encountered: Cairn Gorm lower slopes on 24 June 2024
About: Common butterwort is a rosette-forming, insectivorous plant associated with a range of microhabitats including bogs, rock ledges, and open flushes. Glands on the plant's leaves secrete a sticky liquid that traps insects and also produce enzymes to digest them; this phenomenon relates to poor nutrient availability in common butterwort's typical microhabitat. The plant is most often encountered in the uplands. Many lowland sites were lost before the end of the nineteenth century on account of agricultural intensification and drainage.
Heath milkwort (Polygala serpyllifolia)
Where and when encountered: Boat of Garten on 15 May 2024
About: Heath milkwort can be found growing on acidic soils in a wide range of habitats. While present across the length and breadth of Great Britain, there have been particularly marked declines in the lowlands of England in modern times, owing to habitat destruction and changing agricultural practices.
Tormentil (Potentilla erecta)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 14 June 2021
About: Tormentil can be found in most corners of Great Britain growing in acidic soil. Grassland, moorland, heathland, and open woodland are among the habitats in which the plant occurs.
Marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 29 June 2022
About: Marsh cinquefoil is absent from large parts of central, southern, and eastern England but otherwise widely distributed in Great Britain. Typical habitats include bogs and wet meadows.
Intermediate wintergreen (Pyrola media)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 5 July 2022
About: Intermediate wintergreen, an evergreen perennial, is predominantly a plant of the Scottish Highlands, where well-drained soils in woodland and on heathland are favoured. Like other true wintergreens, the plant supplements photosynthesis by deriving energy from soil fungus.
Common wintergreen (Pyrola minor)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 5 July 2022
About: Common wintergreen is primarily a plant of the northern half of Great Britain. The species is an evergreen perennial with a preference for damp places. Like other true wintergreens, the plant supplements photosynthesis by deriving energy from soil fungus.
Meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 11 June 2025
About: Meadow buttercup is a perennial herb found throughout Great Britain in damp meadows, pastures, and other habitats.
Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 11 June 2025
About: Creeping buttercup is a perennial herb found throughout Great Britain, but with a particular preference for disturbed nutrient-rich soils that are damp or wet, including those found along woodland rides, by ditches, and around farm gateways.
Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus)
Where and when encountered: Cairn Gorm lower slopes on 24 June 2024
About: Cloudberry is a plant of moorland and blanket bog. Typically growing above 600 metres of elevation, the species is mostly restricted to the uplands of Scotland and the high spine of England.
Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa)
Where and when encountered: Nethy Bridge on 7 June 2022
About: Common sorrel, a plant with a preference for neutral or slightly acidic soil, can be found throughout Great Britain.
Northern dock (Rumex longifolius)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 12 June 2024
About: Northern dock can be found growing on open, disturbed ground, in various habitats, from northern England through to the north coast of Scotland.
Editor's note: I am reasonably confident of the species identification of the plant photographed.
Biting stonecrop (Sedum acre)
Where and when encountered: Castle Roy (Nethy Bridge) on 18 June 2022
About: Biting stonecrop can be found throughout most of Great Britain, although in Scotland the plant is generally more common nearer to the coast. Natural habitats for the plant include shingle, sand dunes, and cliffs, but walls, roofs, gravel tracks, and pavements all offer suitable human-made alternatives.
Common ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 6 August 2024
About: Common ragwort is a widespread plant in Great Britain, and heavily grazed grassland is among the numerous habitats in which this species can be found. While common ragwort is maligned for a known toxicity to domesticated mammals such as horses, the plant is used as a food-plant by various species of invertebrate.
Moss campion (Silene acaulis)
Where and when encountered: Ben Macdui on 21 August 2023
About: Moss campion is a long-lived, cushion-forming flower, found up to 1300 metres or so above sea level. In Great Britain, the plant is restricted almost exclusively to the Scottish Highlands.
Editor's note: The plant photographed here was a few metres below the summit of Ben Macdui, at 1305 metres of elevation.
Red campion (Silene dioica)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 12 June 2024
About: Red campion thrives in the lightly shaded habitat of hedgerows, coppice woodlands, and woodland rides and clearings. The species can be encountered from the far north to the far south of Great Britain.
Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 24 May 2025
About: Hedge woundwort is a plant of numerous habitats, from the far south to the far north of Great Britain, including woodland, hedgerows, rough grassland, and the banks of waterways.
Devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis)
Where and when encountered: Glenbeg Estate on 31 August 2021
About: Devil's-bit scabious grows across much of Great Britain in a wide range of habitats that are moist to moderately free-draining, especially those with mildly acidic soils. Flowers, which can be seen between July and October, attract a large variety of nectar- and pollen-feeding insects.
Wood sage (Teucrium scorodonia)
Where and when encountered: Kincraig on 29 July 2023
About: Wood sage is a perennial herb associated with well-drained soils of a acidic or mildly calcareous nature – including, but not just in, woodland – and is broadly distributed across Great Britain.
Chickweed wintergreen (Trientalis europaea)
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 14 June 2021
About: Chickweed wintergreen (also known as 'Arctic starflower') grows in the herb layer of oak, birch, and pine woodland and on moorland. Colonies of chickweed wintergreen may be separated by apparently suitable habitat, which relates to the plant's reproduction being mostly via runners (seed-set is occasional only). The Scottish Highlands are a stronghold for the species, although the plant is also known from parts of northern England and southern Scotland.
Colt's-foot (Tussilago farfara)
Where and when encountered: Grantown-on-Spey on 13 April 2024
About: Colt's-foot, a widespread species in Great Britain, is catholic in habitat tastes but shows some preference for disturbed places.
Common nettle (Urtica dioica)
Where and when encountered: Blair Athol on 9 June 2024
About: Common nettle can be encountered in most corners of Great Britain, often being the dominant plant on damp patches of land with a high richness of nutrients, especially that of phosphate.
Common valerian (Valeriana officinalis)
Where and when encountered: Cromdale on 12 August 2024
About: Common valerian can be found from the far north to the far south of Great Britain.
Editor's note: The subspecies sambucifolia, as photographed here, is a plant of damp habitats such as marshes, water margins, and wet woodland.
Germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys)
Where and when encountered: Craigellachie NNR on 20 June 2024
About: Germander speedwell thrives on a wide range of soil types and in numerous habitats, such as woodland, grassland, hedgebanks, rocky outcrops, and upland screes. The plant can be found in almost all corners of Great Britain.
Heath speedwell (Veronica officinalis)
Where and when encountered: Glenmore Forest Park on 24 June 2024
About: Heath speedwell is a perennial herb of habitats such as open woodland, heathland, and hedgebanks, as well as grassland with moderately acidic or leached calcareous soil. The plant can be found in most parts of Great Britain.
Marsh violet (Viola palustris)
Where and when encountered: Abernethy Forest on 24 April 2025
About: Marsh violet – a herbaceous plant with a markedly western distribution Great Britain – has a preference for acidic soils where there is at least some flushing.
Selected galleries
[ARCTIC ALPINE PLANTS] [BUTTERFLIES] [DRAGONFLIES] [FORBS] [FUNGI] [GALLS] [HYMENOPTERANS] [LONGHORN BEETLES] [MOTHS] [SELECTIONS BY EDITOR] [SHIELDBUGS] [TRUE BUGS] [TRUE FLIES] [UNCOMMON PINEWOOD HERBS] [WOODY PLANTS]