Lon Mor vegetation- Inchnacardoch Forest
Photograph is courtesy and copyright of Forestry Commission, Forest Research, Roslin, and provided with help from Glen Brearley. FR Photo number No D597 taken by I A Anderson.
Text reads as:
‘Near Expt 126 P46. A close up photograph to show the ground vegetation as it appears before ploughing. The calluna is low and sparce and there is heavy lichen growth. There are clumps of pure Sphagnum and frequent Eriophorum and Scirpus. After ploughing the heather becomes much more luxurious and Sphagnum, lichen etc etc less plentiful.’
Foresters at this time were acutely tuned into the wide variety of plant communities that covered the multitude of soil types, slopes and conditions. They did not have the luxury of a previous felled timber crop to guide them. They had bitter experience of what types of forest trees failed or just stood immobile in check on certain soil and vegetation types and those conifers which with a little care and fertiliser would give promise of a reasonable crop in marginal soil or peat conditions. Mats of thick waving Molinia grass were easy to plan the tree menu for – Sitka spruce did well in its moist, richer under soil or peat but in peat sites dominated by weak heather, Sphagum and Eriophrum such as above but with a sprinkling of Molinia cerulia grass through it in places – that was a very different matter. If the Molinia grass was just a little more thickly mixed it could well indicate that pure Sitka spruce would grow quite well with a little initial fertiliser but just a little less Molinia and the pure spruce crop would just go into prolonged check. Better to go for a Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce mixture. Then what about diversity of species - where do they go?
Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas