SCIENTISTS say they have unearthed a species of plant not found anywhere else on the planet.
The Northern Prongwort, a large and colourful liverwort, has been confirmed in the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross, owned by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
It came as a separate species of liverwort new to science was found at two remote sites on Shetland. It is being hailed by scientists as being globally significant as the only other known location for the Viking Prongwort is along one fjord in western Norway.
Dr David Genney, SNH's specialist on mosses and liverworts, said: "These are exciting and significant discoveries. We have an amazing wealth of bryophytes – mosses and liverworts – in Scotland and some of them are found nowhere else in the world."
Dr David Long, head of the cryptogamic plants and fungi section at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: "We are still finding out more about this remarkable community with molecular work revealing two new species in the past few years."
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