Mountain azalea [Loiseleuria procumbens]. Sgurr na Bana Mhoraire, 05/06/85 ~ This exquisite little plant, a relative of the rhododendron, is as tough a survivor as they come. A true alpine, it favours open, windswept sites above 650m - large swathes of the Lochnagar plateau are tinted pink by it in midsummer - and the thick waxy leaves assist in the absorption (the medial grooves channel dew) and retention of water over the vast range of temperatures that it can tolerate.
Diapensia lapponica West Highlands, 30/05/85 ~ Diapensia is an Arctic-alpine plant with a circumpolar distribution, which in the British Isles touches down only (as far as we know) on this hilltop in the Loch Shiel vicinity, where it was first discovered as recently as 1951, and by an entomologist rather than a botanist. Reports of one or two other sites have been discounted as misidentifications of white-flowered variants of Loiseleuria procumbans.
Perhaps the oddest thing (matriphagy?) I've ever seen in the Scottish hills - tadpoles feeding on the bleached body of a frog (their parent possibly?), in a rock pool on the ridge between Lochs Morar and Nevis. Unfortunately I couldn't afford to spend much time observing it, as I had a boat to catch at Tarbet. 10/5/93
![Mountain azalea [Loiseleuria procumbens].
Sgurr na Bana Mhoraire, 05/06/85
~ This exquisite little plant, a relative of the rhododendron, is as tough a survivor as they come. A true alpine, it favours open, windswept sites above 650m - large swathes of the Lochnagar plateau are tinted pink by it in midsummer - and the thick waxy leaves assist in the absorption (the medial grooves channel dew) and retention of water over the vast range of temperatures that it can tolerate.](https://www.streapadair.com/img/spacer.gif)