Hannah Mulcahy
Ecologist | Botanist | BSBI VC recorder H09 |
Sharing finds from the field — Turloughs, Irish flora, habitats & wildlife 🌿
Based in Co Clare 🇮🇪
- Reposted by Hannah MulcahyWe're excited to welcome @hannahmul.bsky.social as our speaker at next month's Green Drinks! She will speak about turloughs & their importance to local biodiversity. Reg @ eventbrite.com/e/1979983195036?aff=oddtdtcreator
- A lot of work to do in Ireland as we look towards Nature Restoration, with 90% of our protected habitats in bad or unfavourable condition, with 51% of these deteriorated since last report in 2018. www.npws.ie/publications...
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- Tiny and rare- my first encounter with Mudwort (Limosella aquatica) at The Gearagh, Co. Cork. Growing on freshly exposed mud, the water levels are controlled by ESB for the hydrolectric dam downstream on the Lee. This plant is protected in Ireland (FPO) and also occurs on turloughs
- A treat this week to find Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) near Clonakilty, Co. Cork 🌼 With its stronghold in the south, it’s not something I often see in Clare. Sadly, this plant is has suffered larges declines in Britain and Ireland
- One of my #FavouritePlant has to be Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris). I’m lucky to see it regularly in the west of Ireland. But it was a real joy to meet this familiar plant on a trip to the Swedish Arctic, in Abisko National Park #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
- Who else gets excited when its finally Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) season? One of the loveliest late summer flowers ✨ 📍Tullanafrankagh turlough, Co Galway
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- Water Germander Teucrium scordium from Knockaunroe Turlough A gorgeous rare plant that seems to like hiding among equally purple-leaved Water-mint 📍Burren National Park
- Dodder (Cuscuta epithymum) flowering on fixed dune, a wholly parasitic plant. It seems to particularly enjoy parasitising Sea sandwort (Honckenya peploides) which has turned yellow from stress. 📍Maharees, Co Kerry
- Pyramidal orchids Anacamptis pyramidalis still going strong and vibrant, despite the gloomy start to August. 📍Maharees, Co Kerry
- Pillwort Pilularia globulifera from Upper Lake, Killarney, Co Kerry Tiny, rare, protected, aquatic.. FERN?! This is a hard plant to find not only is it rare but it grows with its equally thread-like companion bulbous rush, both growing side by side in this photo
- A great year for Spiranthes spiralis Autumn lady's-tresses in Maharees, Co Kerry.
- Strawberry clover (Trifolium fragiferum) in fixed dune, Maharees, Co Kerry. Always a cheerful one to see!
- Year 3 of growing a meadow in my back garden and this year I bought my own scythe - now I'm fully committed! I quickly learned rule no. 1 of scything: keep the blade super sharp and it’ll slice like butter. Then it’s a fun job and you could go forever.
- I went searching for Orange Foxtail (Alopecurus aequalis) in Lough Gash, Newmarket-on-Fergus. This elegant and colour grass is only present in a handful of sites in Ireland, it is protected under Wildlife Acts. Pleased to have found it doing well! #Turloughs
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- Yellow-eyed-grass (Sisyrinchium californicum) from the shores of Lough Corrib, Co Galway. Native of west coast North America, introduced to Ireland. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social
- At last, I have introduced myself to the rare and beautiful Irish Lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) — found at a well-known site along Lough Corrib, Co. Galway. #WildflowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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- Ballyvaughan Turlough, Co Clare - this turlough refilled dramatically after one night of heavy rain, flooding back over flowering vegetation. Here you can see the Marsh ragwort flowers under the surface of the water.
- If anyone could help me ID this orchid 😇 I thought it might be Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. coccinea but this on the edge of my ID capabilities with only 1 flower left 😅 @bsbibotany.bsky.social @ukorchids.bsky.social
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- These dried, felted remains of filamentous algae are known as "algal paper", left behind as turlough waters recede - a reliable sign you're standing in a turlough basin. 📍 At Coolisduff in typical sheets across the basin floor. 📍 At Lydacan the paper is unusually caught in a wire fence
- Delighted to have been to the BBS Summer Meeting in Co Clare this past week. My favourites are these tiny thalloid liverworts, Riccia: • Riccia sorocarpa from Burren NP • Riccia beyrichiana at Ballyeighter Lough • Riccia cavernosa at Glenamaddy Turlough (not in Clare!)
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- Gathered Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) seed today from the meadow in the back garden, ready to sow back into the meadow in the grassier patches First bloom was 13 May, and here we are, 49 days later on 1 July, pods rattling, season complete 🌿🌼🌾
- What a turlough basin looks like in June 🌿 Meadowsweet, silverweed, mint, eyebrights, and a few special Fen Violets tucked in there too. #WildflowerHour #Turloughs
- My first Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) of the year — flowering at the base of Lydacan Castle, Co. Galway.
- Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) is flowering now — a woody climber with striking purple blooms, and not too common here in the west of Ireland. Found this one, along with an interesting white-flowered variant, on the fringes of Termon Turlough in Co. Galway 💜🤍 #Turlough #WildflowerHour
- Reposted by Hannah Mulcahy@britishspiders.bsky.social recently digitised 15k slide 📸 from arachnologists John & Frances Murphy. Spotted that one of their Snowdon Lily 📸 was exactly same clump/angle 54yrs later. Great to see this Mountain Spiderwort clump still thriving. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @natreswales.bsky.social
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- Shoreweed (Littorella uniflora) — an aquatic plant that only flowers when exposed by falling water levels. Common on turloughs, but easy to miss. The flowers are tiny, but worth crouching down for a closer look 🌿💧 #Turloughs #AquaticPlants
- A nod to the (semi) aquatic specialists I found this week in — the plants adapted to the rise and fall of a turlough basin: • Turlough Dandelion • Common Bladderwort • Lesser Water-plantain • Greater Spearwort #WildflowerHour #AquaticPlants #Turloughs @bsbibotany.bsky.social
- One of our loveliest — and rarest — native shrubs: Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa). It loves a habitat both damp and rocky, and is right at home in the #Turloughs in the Burren. This patch was growing right on the edge of Rockforest Turlough, nestled beside the iconic “Burren Pines” 🌿💛
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