WILDLIFE – FLOWERS
The botanical highlight of any visit to Unst is the Keen of Hamar Nature Reserve. This apparently barren ‘moonscape’ is the place where, in the 19th century, the teenage botanist Thomas Edmondston discovered the endemic Shetland Mouse-eared Chickweed – more commonly referred to as Edmondston’s Chickweed. Several other rare plants grow on the Keen, including Norwegian Sandwort, Northern Rock-cress and Stone Bramble.
Unst has a wealth of flowers, partly due to the variety of underlying rocks and partly due to the relatively low grazing levels in several areas, although species are still being lost as crofting becomes less diversified. In early summer, the wetter hills look almost white with Cotton Grass, which is replaced later in the summer by the golden-yellow of Bog Asphodel and, in a good summer, the pinks and purples of three species of heather. Several species of orchids are quite common – Heath Spotted Orchids on the hills, Northern Marsh Orchid around the crofts and Frog Orchids on close-cropped serpentine grassland.