IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Alder Road, DUMBARTON, G82 2EL

This sewage pumping station is in a fenced enclosure at the western end of Image; in that picture, it is left of centre, with a dark-red banner on the fence. Just to the left of it is a Image In the present picture, the industrial yard behind and to the right of the pumping station is the one shown in Image

The sign on the right reads "Path / River Leven / 100 yards". The structure behind the fence on the right is Image The path is the "CP 157" mentioned in the first of the end-notes. It is at the western end of Image; in that picture, it is at the far end of the pavement on the left. See Image for the other end of this short path, where it meets a longer path along the eastern bank of the River Leven.

(Malva moschata) The flowers are beside a short path that leads out of Broadmeadow Industrial Estate to meet a much longer footpath along the eastern bank of the River Leven. The short path is the "CP 157" referred to in the end-note, and the present picture shows its western end, at the River Leven. See Image for the other end of it. As for the flowers of this species, it seems that they are more commonly pink than white: see, for example, Image at Dumbarton Rock. Some cultivated varieties (of which this may be one) have white flowers.

The long inrolling of the leaf margin is caused by mites, probably of the species Aculus magnirostris. The tree is beside a riverside path, at the far end of the path shown in Image

As related in Image, embankments were created on the eastern side of the River Leven in order to reclaim an area called the Broad Meadow. What looks like a path in the present photograph is a concrete walkway at the top of the embankment (there is also a footpath here; it is out of shot, but is located just a few metres to the right of the concrete walkway). The walkway begins at the point from which this photograph was taken, and extends northwards for a distance of about 150 metres, mostly through trees. That area of riverside trees can be seen directly ahead of the line of the path in Image The River Leven can be seen indistinctly through the vegetation, while the only visible part of the skyline shows part of the distant peak of Ben Lomond. There are some white willow trees growing here beside the walkway; one of them can be seen here as a small, pale tree, just right of the centre of the image.

The host tree, a white willow (Salix alba), is shown in Image The leaves are similar to those of crack willow; hairs on both surfaces of the leaves give the whole tree a pale appearance (see the link just cited). The galls are in the form of tight upward rolls of the leaf margin, with some enlargement and reddening of the tissue. At the time of submission, the standard reference work (from 2002) tentatively identified such galls as being caused by the mite species Aculus magnirostris; it noted that more research was needed. The 2011 revision identifies short twisted inrolling (like most of the examples shown in this picture) as being caused by Aculus craspedobius, and long inrolling by Aculus magnirostris, but it also points out that the only way to be certain about which of the two species is responsible is to identify the mites themselves.

The view is from the northern end of Image Ahead, on the left, is the beginning of a short Image, with Image just to its right. There is a T-junction there: Image heads right, and the much shorter Alder Road heads left.

This part of the route follows on from the section shown in Image The photograph was taken from a point just north of the railway bridge.

This part of the estate is used by William Thompson & Son (Dumbarton) Limited, and some changes are being made there: compare Image, taken a few days later. Both views are from outside the boundary fence, from a Image The concrete base shown at the centre of the picture was extended to include the whole yard.

See Image, taken a few days earlier, for further details. Both views are from outside the boundary fence, from a Image