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Bathgate is West Lothian's largest town, set on the ridge of the Bathgate Hills above the Avon Water valley, a post-industrial market town whose surroundings mix oilseed rape arable on the lower agricultural land with heather moorland on the Bathgate Hills SSSI above. The oilseed rape flow on the fields between Bathgate and Linlithgow is among the strongest in West Lothian from April into May; white clover follows on the improved grassland through June and July. The Bathgate Hills carry heather and bilberry from late July, and Polkemmet Country Park to the south provides parkland sycamore and hawthorn in a sheltered wooded setting. The Barbauchlaw Burn and Union Canal to the north carry bankside hawthorn and himalayan balsam.

Oilseed rape is the defining spring flow in West Lothian — the arable fields between Linlithgow, Bathgate and the Forth shore carry a powerful April-to-May bloom that fills supers quickly. White clover on the improved lowland pastures is the main mid-summer crop from June through July; it is particularly strong on the Livingston amenity grasslands and the Almond valley floor. Sycamore is the dominant May flow tree on road margins, estate plantings and river valley woodlands throughout the council area. The Union Canal towpath carries himalayan balsam from late July through September; bramble is prolific on former shale bing reclamation sites at Broxburn, Winchburgh and Armadale. The Bathgate Hills SSSI provides heather and bilberry moorland for apiaries on the higher ground — a modest but real late-summer upland supplement. Hawthorn on the field hedgerows between Linlithgow and Bathgate provides a reliable May blossom flow; ivy closes the calendar on older stone buildings in October.