Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobjob  Come on AlanS where are you ?? 
The silence is deafening  |
Lol, I have been away in Cornwall and Snowdonia looking at eyebrights.
Jenny, I don't know if I am pleased or sorry that you have turned your photographic skills to
Euphrasia.
Pleased I think, as you obviously have a good eye for them.
So ...
1. Certainly close to
E. tetraquetra but the toothing of the floral leaves (bracts) is very sharp and the flowers look to be rather large. I think it is most likely to be
E. arctica x tetraquetra.
2. Yes, this looks like
E. arctica. I don't really agree with the subspecies any more, but this would come under subsp.
borealis.
3. Might be pure
E. nemorosa but more likely
E. arctica x nemorosa I think. This hybrid largely replaces the parents in western and northern Scotland and may be doing the same in western Ireland.
4. Again I think this is
E. arctica x nemorosa. Enlarging your photo, I think the leaves might have short glands, which would rule out pure
E. nemorosa - and in any case the floral leaves have an '
arctica' look to them. It might even be pure
E. arctica.
5. Yes, a skinny version of 3.
Individual plants vary a lot, reflecting the nutrition they draw from their host as well as micro-habitat, and these slender, rather starved plants do not readily fit the keys.
6. Not
E. pseudokerneri, but
E. arctica yet again. Growing on
Lotus I see, which is giving it some extra oomph.
(Well, to be more scientific, extra nitrogen.)
7. Yes indeed, a really nice portrayal of
E. salisburgensis.
(In case any continental botanists see this and wonder, it is the Irish race, var.
hibernica, with smaller flowers than in Europe.)
A nice set of photographs. You have run into the hybridisation problems we have particularly with the larger-flowered species, but you have selected the plants well. I have to be slightly tentative with my identifications as I don't have the actual specimens, but I can be a lot more confident with these than with most photographs I see!
Alan
(still only briefly visiting the forum just now)
Re: Eyebrights....! 
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