The walking trails around here are seductive – aside from the Cairngorm Mountain area the RSBP manages a huge area of the old Caledonian Forest – Scots Pines 300 – 400 years old.
Today’s lesson:
Caledonian forest is limited to Scotland, and is our only native pine forest. It has an open canopy of Scots pine over juniper and a thick ground flora of heather, bilberry and cowberry with small cow-wheat and wavy hair-grass. In the milder, wetter west, the canopy is more diverse with more oak, holly, birch and rowan. It grows on soils poor in nutrients, from valley bottoms up to about 650m.
This morning another forest walk – Big Pine and Two Lochs walk to Loch Garten and Loch Malachie.
Just three fungus photos . . .
And a chat at the RSBP Loch Garten Nature Centre . .
After lunch at Nethy Bridge a detour to Carrbridge . . .
But only after I had entered and won . . .🤣
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