wild flowers in fife & kinross - Fife Coast and Countryside Trust

In 1970 the recording of the Fife and Kinross flora on a 5 x 5 km grid square basis
was begun and has continued since. Further publications appeared, notably a
selected list of plants in West Fife in 1990 and an account of the NE Fife Parish of
Balmerino plants, past and present, in 1991. Work on the preparation of a full flora
was now contemplated but was put to one side when the BSBI requested that
Recorders should concentrate on work for a new edition of the “Atlas of the British
Flora”, then expected to appear in 2000. This, and the need to itemise the VC85
flora for the national Census Catalogue, involved a great deal of intensive field-work
and further historical research between 1995-2000. An additional project arose
during the same period with the decision to publish an account of Fife’s natural
history, and the author was invited to become botanical editor as well as to compile
succinct lists of the county’s flowering plants and trees and shrubs. These appeared
in 1998 in “The Nature of Fife”; because of the need to be brief the details given
were rather limited and by no means as informative as in this present account.
Thus by the end of the 20th century, although there was a considerable corpus of
knowledge concerning the vascular plants of Fife and Kinross, a complete list had
yet to appear, and an exhaustive flora beckoned again. But by then Fife’s local
biological records centre, Fife Nature, was becoming more and more involved with
enquiries about the environment, not least concerning planning matters. As an aid to
answering these queries, the suggestion was made that a concise but all-embracing
list be compiled - the result being the following list. It is anticipated that work will
continue with a view to issuing a flora containing much fuller details of distribution
(including maps), historical notes on localities and extinctions, more information on
introductions and casual occurrences, etc.
Geology and Landscape
Fife and Kinross, along with Clackmannan, form an extended peninsula in east
central Scotland between the Firths of Forth and Tay. The Fife coastline measures
105 miles (170 km) and the combined area is some 580 square miles (1307 sq. km).
Within this area the landscapes are distinctly varied, reflecting the differences in the
underlying rocks. Kinross is a low-lying basin surrounding Loch Leven and
encircled by hills. To the north the Ochils are formed of andesitic and basaltic
rocks of the Lower Red Sandstone. The Cleish Hills, Benarty, Bishop Hill and the
Lomonds are made up of varying types of dolerite sills. The intensively farmed land
of the Loch Leven basin is on boulder clay overlying the Upper Old Red Sandstone.