The early morning sun rising over the Grey Corries mountain range picks out a clump of May-green coloured Alpine Lady's-fern (Athyrium distentifolium), its shuttlecock of fronds erect with a little downturn at the tip. Each frond is delicate and dissected, and on this plant the pinnules are down-turned at the edges. Behind, large blocks of pale quartzite dot the steep slope, turning to scree and crags as the corrie rises to the ridge crest. The sun is just topping the ridge, making an optical illusion as if shining through a semi-circular hole in the ridge, and its refraction on the camera lens forms a faint rainbow above the fern
Looking down on a clump of Alpine Lady-fern, growing out of Woolly Fringe-moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum) at the base of a quartzite cliff. The elegant fronds are spreading, showing off their delicate dissection and yellow-green colour against the greys of the rock and moss.
Finally, a fern! Day 10 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the delicate Alpine Lady-fern, a species of Scottish mountains that grows where the snow lies late, consequently declining linked to changing climate
I find the pattern of its fronds very restful, almost hypnotic to look at... #wildfernhour