Because of its northerly location, isolated nature and extreme climate the flora of the islands is impoverished with just 400 species occurring.

There are a few species of hawkweed and a chickweed that are endemic (found nowhere else) to Shetland. These rarities are the botanical stars but there are many habitats which provide a dazzling display of colour throughout Shetland; beautiful `hanging gardens' along coastal cliffs, wet marshes and flower rich meadows. Even blanket bog can reveal hidden delights, or give a splash of autumnal colour when bog cotton and other sedges turn russet.

MOORLAND
The cool, damp climate of Shetland has favoured peat formation - representing thousands of years of compressed dead plant material. Peat or blanket bog is a globally rare and threatened habitat yet it cloaks vast swathes of Shetland. Wet loving plants dominate and include cross-leaved heath, bog asphodel, cotton grasses and deer grass. Hidden amongst taller plants are small herbs such as the blue or lilac flowered milkwort and the yellow tormentil.

Few plants are adapted to cope with the constant wet conditions and lack of available nutrients in peat although some such as sundew and butterwort compensate for this by being carnivorous.

They trap small insects on their sticky leaves and then digest them! Others such as lousewort are semi-parasitic, tapping into the root systems of other plants for their nutrients.

CROFTLAND
Traditional crofting provides a range of habitats which are diverse botanically and particularly valuable for wildlife. Hayfields were once a common feature of Shetland croftland.

Hay cutting and carefully managed grazing produces a rich floral assemblage including gentians and orchids. Drier meadows support many grasses including sweet vernal grass.

This is the grass which gives hay its smell when dried!

Amongst the grass meadow buttercup, yellow rattle, devil's-bit scabious and autumn hawkbit dominate, accompanied by red and white clover, eyebright and common mouse ear.

Eyebright is another semi-parasitic plant which takes advantage of the root systems of its host. Sedges, marsh cinquefoil, ragged-Robin and lady's smock favour wet meadows while tall herbs such as meadowsweet and angelica favour areas where there is minimal or no grazing. Burns and ditches support marsh marigold, monkey flower and yellow flag.

COASTAL CLIFF
Safe from grazing sheep and nourished by salt-spray, cliffs possess some of the most lush vegetation in the islands. Amongst the short turf, fine grasses, sea plantain, buck's-horn plantain, sea pink and spring squill are prominent.

The tiny blue flowers of the squill provide an attractive display, combining with sea pink from late May through to early July.

On sheltered cliffs, roseroot, sea campion, red campion, scurvy grass, bird's-foot trefoil, sheep's-bit and thyme flourish, an indication that some plants are not always limited by climate and poor soils!