Machair flowers

Machair flowers are at their very best in mid to late summer. On well-managed machair land in Tiree, you are treated to a stunning carpet of flowers stretching down to the shore. It is home to the rare Great Yellow Bumble Bee, and the scent is amazing!

Pronouncing machair is an art so we wrote a guide.

What is Scottish machair?

Machair is originally a Gaelic word. It means a fertile low lying grassy plain. Specifically, machair is sand-based. You will find it on the western coasts of the Highlands and Islands. It is one of the rarest habitats in Europe.

On the Tiree Tea croft, I have a large expanse of machair. Each year, I take the animals off the Machair from the first of June, leaving the ground to rest. That allows the the machair flowers to flower and set seed. The animals don’t go back on until the winter.

By moving the animals, the ground benefits and the grass can be “deferred” to be grazed in the winter, thereby reducing the need for extra feeding or as many bales. As a result of keeping animals grazing on the machair until June, you make sure the grass is kept short as the summer arrives. Consequently, the machair flowers can establish themselves and get growing, without being choked by grass.

Favourite machair flowers

I walk the machair every day and that means I definitely have some favourites. Here are my top six machair flowers.

• Yarrow
• Lady’s Bedstraw
• Birds Foot Trefoil
• Clover
• Thyme
• Wild Orchids

Yarrow

I just love the smell of Yarrow. It’s hard to explain but it’s delicious. Liquorice-esque. Apparently it was used for digestive complaints, and it has anti-inflammatory properties.

Lady’s Bedstraw

This tall yellow flower amused me as a kid as I imagined just how much it would take to fill a mattress! The idea still makes me chuckle!

And I’m not joking! The history books tell us that it was used that way.

Before the advent of the modern mattress, lady’s bedstraw was a popular choice for bedding thanks to its soft and springy quality and pleasant scent (when dried it smells of hay). Also it has an astringent quality which may also have brought it into the bed against fleas. 

Plantlife.org.uk

Bird’s Foot Trefoil

It’s so wee, but it’s incredibly hardy – and the tiny yellow flowers are very reminiscent of a wee bird’s foot.

Red clover

Enormous red clover heads are the perfect habitat for bees and other pollen loving insects. Thanks to red clover, the machair fills with the dark pink flowers and because of that, it fills with insects and bees as well! It is a Legume (meaning that it is related to the bean family). Legumes fix nitrogen into the ground. Because of that, red clover is great for feeding sheep and cows. Farmers sow it under their main crops so that it comes through after cutting the first crop.

Thyme

Did you know that Thyme rarely grows taller than a few inches? It nestles into the ground in patches meaning that it is easy to miss. Not by bees, though!

Orchids

Wild Orchids are another rare flower. Well, rare in lots of places but not in Tiree! Again, as a result of our machair habitats and our wetland areas (that’s the polite name for a bog!), the summer brings with it a whole host of stunning Orchids.

Orchids are a favourite machair flower in our house. As kids, my sister and I spent a lot of time hunting them on the machair!

Machair flowers in tea

So, which machair flowers are in our Machair Herbal infusion? That is an excellent question, and the answer is – not as many as I would like.

In the UK, tea is regulated as a food. That means that the ingredients in our tea must be licensed as food. Most machair flowers are not licensed as food. Instead, they are licensed as herbs. It’s frustrating, but that’s the way it is!

For that reason, we worked really hard to make sure that our Machair blend mimics the machair scents as closely as possible. We think we’ve managed it, and we’re really proud of it. Hopefully you will also agree that is captures the machair flowers, as well as the spirit of the machair itself!