Angus Hannah has lived on Bute since 1978 and has been recorder for Clyde Isles on behalf of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) since 2002. He joined Marie and Tom for a walk up Kelly Glen and gave lots of useful information. Here are some notes taken:
Notes
The Kelly Gorge woods could be characterised as ‘estate’ woodland with a complex mix of planted specimens and natural regeneration, indicating continuity and change over a number of generations. The oaks are a mix of petraea/ robur hybrids with perhaps some petraea. Based on tree girth, it would seem that there are some old (perhaps 300 year old) oaks in the wood.
In general, the age profile of the trees in the wood is not of immediate concern and it is important to recognise that the many, 50-100 year old oaks, are still relatively young for their species. Having said that the grazing of deer (and in the unenclosed wood at the top of the hill grazing of sheep) may well be the critical factor in restricting regeneration in places and it might be worth nurturing tree regeneration, particularly where ponticum is removed. The wood suffers/benefits from ‘benign neglect’.
The dense understorey vegetation may be successfully resisting ponticum encroachment in places. However, it would be worth looking at the fertility of the ponticum plants in these areas to check whether this is in fact, what is restricting spread.
The NVC categories may not be that useful in describing the ecosystem. However, in general terms the wood is not really comparable with the classic W17 woodland found at, for example, Balnakailly, and however managed, is unlikely to achieve that level of species richness either in vascular plants or bryophytes. The underlying sandstone/conglomorate makes the the wood more comparable with woods on the south of Bute. Having said that, the deep gorge and ravines, do give the potential for more unusual plants to develop and it is here that more interesting plants may be found due to the microclimate. There may also be calcareous pockets in the underlying geology which it would be worth investigating.
The size of the woodland is probably not that critical a factor in the diversity of the plants found.
A variety of scaly/male ferns are present. The Buckler ferns are likely to be predominately Broad Buckler ferns.
Good to see no pheasants.
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