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Bishopton is a village on the southern bank of the Clyde in north-west Renfrewshire, close to the former Royal Ordnance Factory site now being developed as Dargavel Village. The original village has a stone-built core with established cottage gardens; the wooded grounds of the former estate at Erskine Hospital provide a substantial area of mature deciduous woodland including fine limes, sycamore and beech. The Clyde foreshore and the mudflats at Erskine to the east provide estuarine habitat and the wooded banks carry willow, elder and gorse. The surrounding farmland is a mix of arable and improved grassland with hawthorn hedgerows.

Hawthorn opens the Renfrewshire season in May on the lowland field boundaries between Paisley and the Clyde. White clover follows on the improved grasslands and golf course rough of the Clyde valley from June through July. Sycamore and lime are productive in the Paisley park belt, the Finlaystone and Milliken Park estate woodlands, and the West End villa gardens through June and July. Himalayan balsam is the defining late-summer flow: the Cart Water, Black Cart, Calder and Gryfe all carry dense stands from mid-July into September. Bramble is abundant on former industrial and railway land across the central towns. On the Gleniffer Braes and the Renfrewshire hills above Lochwinnoch, heather provides a late-summer supplement for those willing to move colonies to the moor.