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BSBINEWS 

Edited by 

Leander Wolstenholme 

Gwynn Ellis 

cm. 

ems. 

Salvia sclarea L. del. G.M. Easy © 1977 (see page 49) 

January 2004 

No. 95

2 Administration and Important Addresses 

ADMINISTRATION AND IMPORTANT ADDRESSES 

PRESIDENT Mr Richard Pryce 

Trevethin, School Road, Pwll, Lianelli, Carmarthenshire, SA15 4AL 

Tel. & Fax: 01554 775847; email: PryceEco@aol.com 

HON. GENERAL SECRETARY (General Enquiries) BSBl 

c/o Dept. Botany, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD 

Tel.: 0207 942 5002 

HON. TREASURER (All financial matters except Subscriptions) Mr Michael Braithwaite 

19 Buccleuch Street, Hawick, Roxburghshire, TD9 OHL 

Tel.: 01450-372267; Fax: 01450-373591 

BSBl NEWS RECEIVING EDITOR Dr Leander Wolstenholme 

clo Botany Section, Liverpool Museum, WiIliam Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN 

Tel: 01514784278; Fax: 01514784350; email: Leander.Wolstenholme@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk 

BSBl NEWS GENERAL EDITOR Mr Gwynn Ellis 

Address, etc., as below 

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY (Payment of Subs and changes of address) Mr Gwynn Ellis 

41 Marlborough Road, Roath, CardiffCF23 5BU 

Tel. & Fax: 029-2049-6042; email: rgellis@ntlworld.com 

(Please quote membership number on all correspondence; it is in the List of Members in Year Book 2003 or 2004, 

and on the address label of your mailings). 

HON. FIELD SECRETARY (Enquiries on Field Meetings) Mrs Jane Croft 

12 Spaldwick Road, Stow Longa, Huntingdon, Cambs. PE28 OTL 

Email: jane@stowlonga.fsnet.co.uk 

BSBI PROJECT MANAGER Mr David Pearman 

Algiers, Feock, Truro, Cornwall, TR3 6RA 

Tel.: 01872 863388; email: DPearman4@aol.com 

BSBI CO-ORDINATOR Mr Alex Lockton 

66 North Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SYl 2JL 

Tel. & Fax: 01743343789; Mobile: 0585 700368; email: coordinator@bsbLorg.uk 

BSBI VOLUNTEERS OFFICER Mr Bob Ellis 

11 Havelock Road, Norwich, NR2 3HQ 

Tel.: 01603 662260; email: bob@elymus.demon.co.uk 

WATSONIA RECEIVING EDITOR Mr Martin N. Sanford 

clo SBRC, Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IPl 3QH 

Te!': 01473 433547; fax: 01473 433558; email: sbrc@globalnet.co.uk 

RESEARCH FUND APPLICATIONS 

Mrs Sarah Whild 

66 North Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SYl 2JL 

Tel. & Fax: 01743 343789; Mobile: 0585 700368; email: SJ.Whild@bham.ac.uk 

BSBI YEAR BOOK (changes and corrections) MrGwynn Ellis 

Address, etc., as above 

BSBI PUBLICATIONS 

Mr & Mrs Jon Atkins 

clo Summerfield Books, Main Street, Brough, Cumbria CA17 4AX 

Tel.: 017683 41577; Fax: 017683 41687; email: bsbipubs@beeb.net 

BSBI WEB SITE ADDRESS 

www.bsbLorg.uk 

CONTRIBUTIONS INTENDED 

BSBINEWS96 

should reach the Receiving Editor before 

MARCH 1 st 2004

Advertisement 

NATURAL WORLD TOURS 

For 2004 COl( & !

4 Important Notices 

IMPORTANT NOTICES 

FROM THE PRESIDENT 

Many of you will now be aware that Bob Ellis has been appointed to take over the Local Change 

scheme where Pete Selby so untimely and tragically left-off. Pete laid the foundations of the scheme 

by his enthusiasm and by becoming very knowledgeable and involved with the MapMate software and 

encouraged the vast majority of Vice County Recorders to adopt it. He was able to customise various 

parts of the program to meet the requirements of the users and successfully managed to set-up the 

exchange mechanism by which recorders and the central hubs are able to communicate. Pete was no 

mean field-botanist either, and led many recording meetings, particularly in his home county of 

Hampshire. He was also very keen, when he visited me in Carmarthenshire in 2002, on using his Palm 

computer based software in the field to make recording more efficient, an aspect which I, too, am 

especially keen to develop in order to avoid all those evenings of data-input. He will be a difficult act 

to follow but Bob will be getting up to speed in the next few months and will soon be in a position to 

advise on progress and, no doubt, will soon be appealing to recorders to send-in their 2003 records. 

(see page 7). 

Bob is based in Norwich and is a nephew of the late Ted Ellis, the celebrated Norfolk naturalist 

who is author of many of the Jarrold photographic natural history booklets, so he comes with an 

impeccable pedigree! The transfer of Local Change data to him has now been completed and I am 

very grateful to Martin Rand for his assistance in this respect as he was able to take over Pete's 

machines and keep the whole scheme ticking-over. Thanks also to Alex Lockton was also involved in 

ensuring that all the data received during that difficult period was properly dealt-with and backed up. 

Further amendments to MapMate are being addressed which, it is hoped, will go some way to 

answering the few criticisms that some users have made, principally the way in which it handles sites, 

which at present is not entirely compatible with the way most botanical recorders would like to see it. 

But the system is now in place and well proven, for recorders to transfer their records to Bob for 

processing and he should soon be able to keep us up to date with Local Change progress and be in a 

position to direct us to those areas which require further field-work. Of course, as I wrote in my last 

From the President, you can get the same information by logging-on to www.BSBI-projects.org where 

you will find the current species-total for every Local Change tetrad and will be able to download the 

list of species so far recorded. This is an opportunity for members to contribute new records when 

visiting areas away from home. 

The Annual Exhibition Meeting held at Baden Powell House in London on November 29 th was, as 

in most years, very well attended. Although the number of exhibits was somewhat down in number, 

the opportunity for an 'annual reunion' is probably the overwhelming reason for its popUlarity amongst 

members. I, for one, view it as one of the most outstanding botanical social events of the year and it 

has stiff competition from the regional AGMs! It also gave me great pleasure to be able, for the 

second year running, to award the prize to the top student of the year who had taken part in the 

University Certificate in Biological Recording and Species Identification course run by the School of 

Biosciences, University of Birmingham and jointly supported by the BSBI and the Field Studies 

Council. The winner was Jenny Ford who is employed as the County Ecologist by Wiltshire County 

Council and who achieved an unprecedented 100% in her marks for, not just one, but two modules of 

the course!. Very warm congratulations, Jenny: I look forward to seeing you at future BSBI events. 

No doubt most of you were baked by the prolonged hot weather during the summer but, in my 

home county of Carmarthenshire, the Annual Recording Meeting held at Glynhir at the end of July 

started and ended hot and sunny but, whilst being extremely successful and enjoyable, was notable for 

the almost continuous rain which fell from Monday lunchtime until Thursday evening - from one 

extreme to the other! Hopefully we might have better luck in 2004. So we can now look forward to 

recording next year, completing the fieldwork for Local Change and progressing our own particular

Important Notices / Diary 5 

projects. The programme set out in the Year Book includes a variety of field meetings geared to Local 

Change recording, monitoring well-known sites and events for recently-joined members, but above all 

they will all be enjoyable and provide the opportunity for good botanising when members are able to 

learn from each other! 

Finally. I hope that you will all have had a pleasant Christmas and New Year and I look forward to 

seeing you at one or more of next season's field meetings. 

RICHARD PRYCE, President 

BSBIDEVELOPMENTFUNDAPPEAL 

I have great pleasure in reporting that this is proving a great success with excellent support from all 

round Britain and Ireland. 

Our BSBI Council was determined in launching this appeal that all those who give so generously 

of their time (and that usually entails some pecuniary expense as well) by working in the field and in 

other ways have some professional support from the centre to make their work more worthwhile - all 

without pushing up sUbscriptions unrealistically. 

So far about £25,000 has been raised but this is without counting the many members who have 

volunteered to pay a double subscription or who have promised to give additional donations in future 

years or to remember BSBI in their wills. There is additional exciting news in that we are working 

with five other individuals and trusts to firm up on offers of very substantial donations that are likely 

to bring in at least a further £ 1 00,000 over a period of years, subject of course to our projects going 

ahead. 

Equally importantly we can now hope to double up these gifts with public grants for our projects. 

Tax recovery has been claimed on gifts from those who had previously signed Gift Aid 

declarations. Other donors will have since received a Gift Aid form for completion if appropriate. 

As office bearers we have found this marvellous support very humbling and it gives us great 

encouragement. Deep-felt thanks are thus offered not only to those who have supported this appeal 

but to those of you who continue to work so tirelessly for our Society. 

MICI-IAEL BRAITHWAITE, Hon. Treasurer 

NEW BSBI POSTCARDS 

We have produced a NEW set of 16 views, again from photographs kindly made available from Dr 

Bob Gibbons. These are the same thick card and from the same producers, Abacus of Cumbria, and 

reports from our recent Exhibition Meeting have been very enthusiastic!! 

They are available from: Mrs Margot Godfrey, 3 Castleton Avenue, Barnehurst, Kent DA7 6QT 

and cheques must be made payable to HER, NOT BSBI. 

Prices: for I pack £2.90 + 60p p&p = £3.50 

2 packs £5.60 + SOp p&p = £6.40 

3 packs £S.OO + £1 p&p = £9.00 

DAVID PEARMAN 

DIARY 

N.B. These dates are supplementary to those in the 2003 Calendar in BSBI Year Book 2003 and 

include dates of the BSBI's Permanent Working Committees (more October and November dates in 

the next issue)

Editorial/ BSBI Volunteers Officer 7 

Field Studies Council: brochures for overseas tours for 2004 are available from FSC, Montfort 

Bridge, Shrewsbury SY4 IHW; Tel: 01743 852150, email:fsc.overseas@field-studies-council.org; 

www.fscOverseas.org.uk 

And finally: John Topp sent me a photograph of a strange Digitalis with an enormous, aberrant, terminal 

flower found in a London garden which I couldn't resist including in the colour section (plate I) 

EDITORS 

BSBI VOLUNTEERS OFFICER 

[The Society was very pleased (and relieved) to have such a well-qualified replacement for Pete Selby, 

waiting, as it were, in the wings. Bob Ellis is our Vice-county Recorder for East Norfolk, and was the 

runner-up at the original interview in May 2002. In view of the time-scale of the project, we all took 

the view that we could not afford the time (or expense) ofre-advertising the post.] 

By way of introduction ... 

In the wake of the sad loss ofPete Selby, I have recently been appointed as Volunteers Officer. As I 

endeavour to get to grips with the role, I have come to realise just how great Pete's contribution was 

and how well he made it. I doubt I'll be able to match his skill or enthusiasm but I will do my best. If 

I can be of help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me and, as Pete would have said, 'remember 

that it is my job to help you'. 

BSBI Local Change 

Progress with BSBI Local Change continues apace, with records flowing into the BSBI Hub database, 

but at the time of writing, I suspect there are many more records still to come in from 2003 fieldwork. 

Therefore, it is difficult to identifY all those areas in need of extra effort. However, by the time this 

BSBI News lands on your doorstep, the picture should be much clearer. 

May I remind you of the BSBI Projects web site at www.bsbi-projects.org where you can check on 

the progress in any particular tetrad in any vice-county, so I you are thinking of recording whilst on 

holiday in a different part of the country you can pin-point useful areas to visit. Alternatively contact 

me and I will be able to make some suggestions for you. 

If you are not already involved in the Local Change project and would like to join in, there are 

several ways you could help: 

Record one or more tetrads in your area and perhaps take along someone else, whether experienced 

or not, to help share your botanical skills. It is best to contact your local vice-county recorder or 

me in order to avoid any duplication of effort. 

Join with a local group that is recording in your area. Again contact your local vice-county 

recorder or get in touch with me. 

Attend one or more of the field meetings in Scotland, organised specifically for Local Change 

recording. These are listed briefly here, but please check the Year Book for full details. 

19 th & 20 th June: Craik Forest, Ettrick Valley & The Moorfoots, Selkirks 

26 th June: Loch Katrine, West Perthshire 

3,d to 5 th July: Islay & Jura, South Ebudes 

7th to 9 th July: Golspie, East Sutherland 

17th & 18 th July: Pitlochry, Mid Perthshire 

24th & 25 th July: Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire 

6 th to 8 th August: Inverpolly, Loch Ewe & Loch Duich, West Ross 

There may be further Local Change meetings arranged during the year and if you would like me to 

keep you informed of these please let me know. 

BOB ELL/S, BSBI Volunteers Officer, 11 Havelock Road, Norwich, NR2 3HQ; Tel.: 01603 662260; 

Email: VolunteersOfficer@bsbLorg.uk

8 Co-ordinator's Corner 

CO-ORDINATOR'S CORNER 

Countryside matters 

I noticed a curious thing this last summer. Lots of arable fields around this part of the country now 

have wide conservation headlands, and I was struck by the fact that these headlands really seem to 

work. Where the fields abut rivers and meres there always used to be dense stands of nettles and other 

nitrophilous species. This year the nettle beds seemed markedly thinner. I would be amazed if 

something as simple as a five metre wide buffer strip could not just halt eutrophication but actually 

reverse it to the extent that nettles, once established, went into decline. I wonder if anyone has seen 

similar results elsewhere? 

The whole science of monitoring the effect of management policy on the countryside is still in its 

infancy. About five years ago the agricultural people started to get interested in arable conservation, 

but they decided to use a short list of incredibly rare species as the benchmark of their success. In 

discussions with people from Defra this year it has transpired that none of these species has ever been 

found in land within their stewardship scheme, so as far as their monitoring process goes the whole 

thing has been a failure. But in fact it clearly hasn't. If there is one thing that arable extensification 

can do for nature conservation, it is to control and ultimately reduce eutrophication. But how do we 

measure that? The best way is through large-scale programmes like the Countryside Survey and BSBI 

Local Change, which will pick up such effects in time. Concentrating on vanishingly rare weeds has 

been a silly outcome of the Biodiversity Action Plan and needs some serious rethinking. 

Another pleasing change in the countryside is the control of alders by Alder Pox (Phytophthora 

cambivora), which causes dieback in the crowns particularly of riverside plants. I shall probably get 

hate mail for saying this, as our modem sense of hygiene makes people uncomfortable with the idea of 

letting diseases run free, but think about it for a moment: over the last fifty years or so our 

abandonment of the management of waterside habitats, possibly compounded by eutrophication, has 

led to a plague of alders along watercourses throughout the lowlands. Whenever a species becomes 

too abundant it inevitably becomes vulnerable, and in this case the agent of population control is a 

fungus. Our instinctive and prejudiced reaction is to try to eradicate the disease because disease is, by 

definition, 'bad'. Happily it has not worked and as a result a lot of watercourses are being opened up 

to the sunlight again, which is just what the water plants needed. 

I wonder if we will ever learn to study natural cycles before we rush in to take control of every 

aspect of the natural environment? Will we ever hear conservation organisations argue for patience 

and research? I think there is going to have to be a change in the philosophy of the nature conservation 

sector over the next few years, as people realise that the biodiversity industry isn't really about nature 

conservation at all - it is about jobs and money and manipulation of the environment for political 

targets. In that respect, it is just another form of development. 

Conservation battlegrounds 

On the whole, the conservation sector seems very pleased with itself these days. It has grown 

exponentially in the last few years and, according to their own publicity, the half dozen or so leading 

conservation charities in Britain now have a turnover of nearly a billion pounds a year. But what 

puzzles me is the battles that we seem to be losing. Take Aucheninnies Moss in Kirkcudbrightshire. 

It is scheduled to be used as a landfill site, even though lowland mires are one of the most high-profile 

habitats for nature conservation. It is apparently the only site in Scotland for the bog bush cricket 

(Metrioptera brachyptera) and it has never been given a thorough botanical survey. But SNH seem 

happy to let it go without a fight, and you won't hear the well-funded campaigning groups putting up 

much of a fuss - it has been left to the traditional efforts of local protestors to make a stand. Has all 

this money turned them soft? Surely using peat bogs for landfill is the sort of thing that should not be 

happening anymore? 

Another battle is over the Montgomery Canal, which I have mentioned before. This canal has been 

a SSSI since before the modem leisure boating movement was formed and it is now a candidate SAC.

Co-ordinator's Corner / Recorders and Recording 9 

British Waterways has proven that their measures to conserve plants in channel do not work (despite 

that being the reason they were allowed to redevelop SSSIs), so they now propose to create ponds and 

transplant all the rarities. Meanwhile the JNCC has produced guidelines which acknowledge that 

translocations do not work and should not be used as a mitigation measure. So, what is the response of 

CCW? They say that the redevelopment of the canal was agreed twenty years ago and they can't stop 

it. All they can do is hope that the National Lottery runs out of money and cannot afford to pay for it. 

It does not strike me as a very robust approach. 

What puzzles me is why no-one can even think of compromise. There is nothing wrong with 

people running their boats up and down canals - that is their natural function. The only problem is 

that canals are bridleways, not motorways, and they simply can't cope with HGVs. Get some sort of 

propulsion mechanism that doesn't involve underwater propellers and the problem is practically 

solved. If farmers can achieve such success with a few metres of headland then surely boat owners can 

compromise in some way. After all, neither group actively dislikes wildlife - they just don't 

understand it. I suggest an overhead cable to tow the barges along by. You would think that within a 

billion pound budget there might be room for the development of such a thing. If it could be done, 

then all the other canals in Britain would have a chance of returning to their former glory. 

Threatened Plants Database 

Please continue to send in records. The main species I am working on at the moment are Northern 

Hawk's-beard (Crepis mollis), Purple Ramping-fumitory (Fumaria purpurea), Bog Orchid (Hammarbya 

paludosa), Red Hemp-nettle (Galeopsis angustifolia), Grasswrack Pondweed (Potamogeton 

compressus), Floating Water-plantain (Luronium natans) and Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), but a 

full list is available at www.tpdb.org. They are all fascinating plants. Last year Peter Sibley, from the 

Environment Agency, found Grasswrack Pondweed in the River Trent, which raises the awful 

(wonderful!) possibility that it is still hiding in rivers throughout England. Underwater plants in small 

quantities would be almost impossible to find and identify. Kate Thorne found Floating Waterplantain 

in abundance in an area of farmland - an entirely new habitat for it that will require the 

textbooks to be rewritten. Pennyroyal was found by Gill Gent and Rob Wilson in vast quantities in 

new sites along the River Nene and by various other people along Roman roads. This plant is not 

decreasing at all - it is expanding its range and thriving. I should congratulate Lee Thickett on his 

discoveries of new sites for Bog Orchid, and John Edgington for one of the best finds of the year 

Alpine Fleabane (Erigeron borealis) at an entirely new site. Sarah Whild deserves a mention for 

refinding Purple Ramping-fumitory in its home town of Shrewsbury, and Heather McHaffie for several 

new Scottish sites. Please don't forget to send specimens of this to Tim Rich, preferably with permission 

to retain them at the National Museum of Wales. We especially need specimens from Lancashire, 

where it is alleged to be quite common, but thorough searches by Gail Quartly-Bishop were only 

successful in the one well-known site where it has been known for decades. 

ALEx LocKToN, 66 North Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SYI 2JL; alex@whildassociates.co.uk; 

coordinator@bsbi.org.uk 

RECORDERS AND RECORDING 

PANEL OF REFEREES AND SPECIALISTS 

As usual there have been a number of changes of address in the Referees Section, and more Referees 

now have email addresses. Please could Referees let me know of address changes, and I would be 

glad to know if others would like their email addresses included. 

The death of Franklyn Perring has been announced elsewhere; as Referee he was covering 

Anagallis, Arctium, Symphytum and 'popular names' and will be much missed in this connection, as in 

so many others. 

Professor David Moore, Viola Referee, has said that he would like to retire, and we are pleased to 

welcome his replacement, Mike Hardman.

10 Recorders and Recording 

We welcome also Paul Green (Allium), Rose Murphy (Oenothera), and Andrew Norton 

(Geranium). 

MARY CLARE SHEAHAN, 61 Westmoreland Road, Bames, London SW13 9RZ. 

email: m.sheahan@rbgkew.org.uk 

PANEL OF VICE-COUNTY RECORDERS 

Members will receive a full listing with the new Year Book 2004, but it might be useful to give the 

recent changes. 

V.c.7 N. Wilts: Vacant 

Dave Green has been recorder since 1982, and helped greatly in the recording, culminating 

in the new Flora in 1993. We thank him very much for his efforts. 

V.c.88 Mid Perth: Mr J.W. McIntosh, 611, 53 Hutcheson Street, Glasgow, Gl ISJ and Mr A.C. 

Godfrey, 18 1sla Road, Luncart, Perthshire, PHI 3HN, to be joint recorders. Corresponence 

to Mr McIntosh. We thank Dr R.E. Thomas, recorder since 1981, for all his work in such a 

rich and vast vice-county. 

V.c.92 S. Aberdeen: Dr R.J. Mitchell, Eastview Cottage, Woodside Road, Torphins, Banchory, 

Kincardines, AB31 4JR. We thank Kathy Fallowfield, recorder since 1994, for all her 

work in another vice-county that is dauting in its richness and difficulty of access. 

V.c.97 Westemess: Mr 1.R. Bonner to be joint recorder. Correspondence, as before, to Dr 1. 

Strachan. 

V.c. 102 S. Ebudes: Dr M.A. Ogilvie, Glencaim, Bruichladdich, Isle ofIslay, Argyll, PA49 7UN. 

We thank Richard Gulliver, recorder since 1993, for his help since that data. 

V.c.106 E. Ross: Drs B.R. & C.B. Ballinger, 5 Shaftsbury Park, Dundee, DD2 ILB. Mrs R. Scott 

to continue as joint recorder, but correspondence to the Ballantynes. Peter Wortham, 

recorder since 1994, retires, and we thank him for his work, especially for the New Atlas. 

DAVID PEARMAN, Algiers, Feock, Truro, Cornwall TR3 6RA; Tel: 01872 863388 

PLANT RECORDS FOR WATSONIA AND THE VICE-COUNTY CENSUS 

CATALOGUE 

The criteria for submission of records for Watsonia have been completely revised following publication 

of the Vice-county Census Catalogue (VCCC), so that Plant Records becomes the formal way of 

updating the Census Catalogue, and a source of information on new records of rare and scarce species. 

At present barely half of Vice-county Recorders (VCRs) regularly publish new records (of species, 

subspecies and hybrids) in Watsonia. It is really important that in future VCRs submit records, not 

only to keep the VCCC updated, but also to make Watsonia records more meaningful. Submission of 

such records will therefore be requested as part of with the annual report on records referred to above. 

We would like VCRs to use the following criteria for what records to submit as VCCC updates for 

their vice-county: 

First record of all taxa (species, subspecies and hybrids) included in the VCCC, designated as 

native, archaeophyte, neophyte or casual. 

First record since 1970 of the taxa above. 

Records demonstrating the rediscovery of all taxa published as extinct in the VCCC or 

subsequently. 

• Newly reported definite extinctions. (Not simply 'not seen for ten years'.) 

Deletions from the VCCC (e.g. through the discovery of errors, the redetermination of specimens, 

etc.). [NB - only those errors affecting VCCC entry].

Recorders and Recording 11 

Please note the quite radical changes to the pre-VCCC criteria, including the inclusion of all casuals 

listed in the VCCC, some of which should previously have been published in BSBI News. 

In addition, we would like VCRs to submit: 

New 10km square records for Rare and Scarce plants, defined, for the moment, as those species in the 

New Atlas mapped in Britain in 100 10km squares or less. 

We must collect records of these to make certain we know the real distribution and to help keep 

the TPDB up to date. 

All critical taxa should, of course, be determined or confirmed by an acknowledged_expert. This is 

currently a problem for Hieracium. 

The history of botany has been littered with erroneous or dubious records and recorders are asked 

to make every effort to ensure accuracy of completed individual record cards (IRCs). In case Of doubt 

on determinations refer to the appropriate BSBI referee or to BRC. At least 6 figure grid references 

should be provided and notes on actual location of plants to guide future monitoring should be written 

on the back ofIRCs. 

New guidelines for Irish VCRs are currently in the process of being drawn up by the BSBI Irish 

Committee in consultation with Records Committee and other interested parties. 

GWYNN ELLls, Editor Plant Notes 

BEYOND TRAINSPOTTING 

At the recent Scottish meeting it was suggested that it is time for us to move beyond 'trainspotting', 

that as recorders we can and should do more than simply tick the register - present or absent. This is 

a view I share, and as a positive step towards its implementation, I am setting out here two suggestions 

of how we might do more, which I propose to employ experimentally during the coming season. I 

invite others to do the same, and hope that on this basis discussion may be carried forward and a more 

adequate data collection system put in place. 

Useful as it is to know that a taxon has been found or not found at a given site, this information is 

so much less than what might be recorded without any additional fieldwork, that it represents a 

squandering of effort and resources. In the course of several hours recording a site, km square or 

tetrad, we actually acquire a great deal of valuable information that at present never finds its way on to 

our record card. We observe, for instance, that some species occur as scattered individuals in suitable 

locations, others in colonies large or small, while yet others are frequent in many kinds of habitat. We 

make a few notes on rare and unusual taxa, but for the rest our record sheet preserves no indication of 

whether one, ten or ten thousand specimens were present, and if in one locality or many. 

My first suggestion is to use an AFOR scale (abundant, frequent, occasional, rare). Towards the 

end of each session, it would take only a few minutes to write the appropriate letter beside each taxon 

which has been stroked through, or cards could be designed with four boxes after each taxon name, in 

which case only a tick would be needed. Cards scored in this way would be of much enhanced value: 

for instance, in assessing the health of a hectad population, the information that the species was 

frequent in three sample tetrads would be more significant than merely knowing that it was present 

there. In repeat surveys such as BSBI Local Change, the additional information would be of great 

value and would provide a much more sensitive barometer of population change. It would no longer 

be necessary to await total extinction in a tetrad, or worse hectad, before alarm bells could be sounded. 

Of course; there is always an element of subjectivity in drawing the lines between categories, but 

guidelines could be offered, and in any case differences should even out when data is pooled. 

However, an AFOR type scale has serious limitations. As Rodwell remarked, its 'inherent 

confusion of ... abundance and frequency' made it unsuitable for NVC work. Ideally, we should aim 

to record both these variables, thereby allowing a distinction between (e.g.) well scattered individuals 

and a couple of dense colonies, both of which might score Occasional on the AFOR scale. There are 

two axes, one from local to general within the entire site being recorded, the other from scarce to

12 Recorders and Recording / Notes and Articles 

abundant in the locality where the plant occurs. If the status of a species in both these respects can be 

recorded, the value of the record is hugely increased. The problem is how to convey a useful level of 

information without undue complexity in observation or recording. Three categories on each axis are 

probably sufficient, and may be most conveniently expressed by adding a code letter and number after 

the taxon. I suggest the following categories provisionally, they may require tweaking after trials. 

Frequency: 

A >20% 

B >1% 

C

Notes and Articles 13 

Erica lusitanica (POliuguese Heath) has long inhabited a Cornish railway line and was naturalised for 

more than a century on Lychett Heath in Dorset, although I am uncertain whether it is still found there 

- McClintock reported in the 1964 Yearbook o/The Heather Society that 'it was all but eradicated by 

fire not long ago', while 30 years later Gust a decade ago) E.J. Clement and M.C. Foster (Alien plants 

o/the British Isles. 1994) wrote that the population was 'now much reduced or gone'. Erica terminalis 

(Corsican Heath) has been known from a site in Northern Ireland for at least a century (where I saw it 

in the mid-1970s), and is also recorded from three vice-counties in Britain: Berkshire, Dorset and 

Westerness. 

The fourth map on the CD-ROM is for E. xdarleyensis (E. carnea x E. erigena) (DarJey Dale 

Heath), a hOliicultural hybrid unknown in the wild because the parent species have widely separated 

natural ranges. In British gardens E. carnea and E. erigena can cross spontaneously and that was the 

origin of E. xdarleyensis - a chance seedling in Smith's nursery at Darley Dale in Derbyshire. At 

least 36 distinct, named cultivars have existed - 26 of these are commercially available today - 

according to the database maintained by The Heather Society for its International register of heather 

names. Recently, deliberate breeding programmes using carefully selected cultivars as pollen- and 

seed-parents have produced a crop of new seedlings, so the cadastre of named cultivars will 

undoubtedly increase. 

Erica xdarleyensis is a very popular and widely cultivated plant, but it is sterile and none of the 

cultivars has produced viable seed as far as I can ascertain. Moreover, it does not spread in gardens by 

self-layering - although some of the cultivars do form mats, few if any of the stems will have 

adventitious roots. Given these characteristics, suggesting a plant incapable of 'jumping the garden 

wall', how do we explain the swarm of 18 10krn squares across southern England? Are they all records 

of deliberately planted, but persistent plants? In one instance that is certainly the case. In the 1930s E. 

xdarleyensis was planted outside Notcutts' Nursery at Woodbridge in East Suffolk, but when the AI2 

was re-routed this heather 'plantation' was virtually destroyed, although an old plant did persist there 

for many years. As far as I can ascertain this plant has long since vanished and, contrary to what Clive 

Stace (New flora o/the British Isles. 1991) stated, there is no E. xdarleyensis on the side of the AI2 at 

Woodbridge today. That leaves 17 squares, one of which presumably is the record cited by Clement 

and Foster (1994) for Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey - not a record I would regard as admissible 

unless the heather has escaped beyond the cemetery's boundaries. Indeed, it is rather suspicious that 

E. carnea is also recorded by Clement and Foster (1994) from Brookwood Cemetery, making the place 

sound more like a well-planted heather garden than a veritable 'wild' site. (The question of when a 

plant becomes a naturalised alien is another subjectt) 

The enigma of E. xdarleyensis is compounded by the fact that there is no map on the CD-ROM 

showing the distribution of naturalised populations of E. carnea (Winter Heath) in Britain although 

this widely cultivated and equally popular heather is recorded by Clement and Foster (1994) as 

'persistent on Apple Tree Banks' on Tresco, on Dartford Heath, and at Churt and the aforementioned 

cemetery in Surrey. Neither the 1991 edition ofClive Stace's New flora nor his 1999 Fieldflora o/the 

British Isles has an entry for E. carnea. 

I suggest that the enigma of the 16 inexplicable squares for a heather incapable of producing 

seeds and rather less prone to vegetative spread than Stace suggests is a matter of identification. 

Few heather experts, whether nurserymen, gardeners or botanists, given pressed specimens of these 

plants, or even fresh specimens plucked from unseen plants, can distinguish between E. carnea and 

E. xdarleyensis, and even telling E. carnea apart from E. erigena takes a great deal of blind faith. 

In gardens at least, a good (but not utterly reliable) rule-of-thumb is that hybrids between Erica 

species usually have non-green (coloured) young growth (see colour section, plate 2) during late 

Spring-early Summer. The following clones are just four examples of the so-called Spring-tipped 

hybrid heathers: E. xdarleyensis 'Furzey', pink tips; E. xstuartii 'Irish Orange', orange tips; E. 

xwatsonii 'Dawn', red tips; E. x williamsii 'Cow-y-jack', bright yellow tips. The last three are 

wild-collected, native clones.

14 Notes and Articles 

Thus a key to E. carnea, E. xdarleyensis and E. erigena could be as follows: 

la Plants with stiffly erect stems, fOlming bushy shrubs with several, distinct main stems, 

to at least 0.75(-3)m tall; foliage green all year round erigena 

1 b Plants with numerous decumbent or ascending shoots, without distinct, main stems, 

rarely more than 0.6m tall (usually lower when growing in open ground) 2 

2a Foliage green all year round; shoots usually decumbent (pollen fertile) carnea 

2b Young shoot-tips not green, often brightly tinged red, yellow or cream; shoots ascending 

or decumbent (pollen infertile) xdarleyensis 

While it would be nice and convenient to have a few good morphological characters to denote the 

differences between E. carnea and E. xdarleyensis, it is apparent that the only reliable way of distinguishing 

them is to examine their pollen. With one rather rare exception, the pollen grains of the cultivars 

of E. xdarleyensis are reported to be shrunken and infertile. Telling E. carnea and E. erigena 

apart, when these are presented as detached specimens, is if anything even more difficult because both 

have fertile pollen. 

E. CHARLES NELSON, (Cultivar Registrar, The Heather Society) Tippitiwitchet Cottage, Hall Road, 

Outwell, Wisbech, PE14 8PE; Email: tippitiwitchet@zetnet.co.uk or registrar@zetnet.co.uk 

FLORAL ABBERA TIONS 

The recent correspondence regarding double-flowered forms of Cardamine pratensis (Cuckooflower) 

reminds me of the only occasion when I have seen this aberration. This was about 60 years ago when I 

found the fully double form at the top of a hill at Barby in Northamptonshire, in a field where stood the 

remains of an old windmill (GR SP542697). After this length of time I cannot remember whether 

there were other similar plants. 

Years later I found a fully double form of Helianthemum nummularium (Common Rock-rose) on 

Ivinghoe Beacon. I took a cutting from this and cultivated it for many years in my garden at Little 

Hallingbury. It was never a vigorous plant. I have also cultivated a fully double form of Ranunculus 

bulbosus (Bulbous Buttercup) given to me and taken from a road verge in Farnham Lane near Bishop's 

Stortford. In the 1960s I discovered a form of Ranunculus acris (Meadow Buttercup) with green 

petals at the foot of Brean Down in Somerset (see Colour Section, plate 3). 

JOHN FIELDING, 19 Dane Acres, Bishop'S Stortford, Herts. CM23 2PX 

DROUGHT RESISTANT RANUNCULUS FICARIA? 

In May this year I noticed Ranunculus ficaria (Lesser Celandine) growing in sandy soil just above the 

littoral zone on the foreshore north of the Highland boundary fault, north of Stonehaven. The 

surrounding vegetation was brown and parched whereas the plants of R. ficaria appeared lush, green 

and healthy. This and the high levels of salinity surrounding the plants made me wonder whether this 

is an example of a variant designed to cope with physiological drought. Do members have any ideas? 

A. MURRAY, 15 Deevale Gardens, Aberdeen, AB12 5PB 

A SINGULARLY DOUBLE FORM OF CARDAMINE PRA TENS/S 

I have been .very interested in the various articles you have printed on double forms of Lady's Smock, 

from various parts of the country, and this reminded me of a very peculiar mutant form that I found 

back in the 1960s in Somerset, when I was at the Botany Dept at Bristol University. The plant was 

growing with normal individuals in a damp meadow, but I could at once see that there was something 

unusual about the flowers. On closer inspection, some of the flowers appeared to be quite normal, 

while others, on the same stem, consisted of a mass of petals and no sexual organs. However, when I 

examined the latter in detail, I realised these were just a later developmental stage of the 'normal'


flowers. The flower buds opened to reveal a single flower, with a normal androecium and gynoecium. 

However, after the petals dropped, the ovary, instead of developing into the usual elongate siliqua, 

began to swell in the middle, eventually bursting open at one side to reveal a large number of more or 

less perfectly formed petals. At this stage these flowers looked at first glance like any other double 

flowers! I was so interested in the plant that I removed it to the Experimental Glasshouse, at the 

University, where it thrived for a few years. Unfortunately I no longer recall the exact locality where I 

originally found it, though I returned on several occasions to see if there were other similar individuals, 

but without success. This really was a double flower, as it produced two flowers from the same bud! I 

wonder if anyone else has encountered anything similar? 

RAy HARLEY, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 SAB 

COASTAL EL YTRIGIA SPECIES AND HYBRIDS IN NORTH-WESTERN 

ENGLAND AND NORTHERN WALES 

Introduction 

Over the last thirty five years vascular plant records have been gathered on a tetrad basis in West 

Lancaster (v.c. 60). In the course of this work it became clear that one of the most common upper 

marsh species was what was thought to be Elytrigia atherica (Sea Couch) (Fig. 1, below). 

Figure I. Tetrad distribution map of what was thought to be Elytrigia atherica on the coast of West 

Lancaster, v.c. 60 compiled from records collected 1964 - 1998. It probably shows the distribution of 

somewhat glaucous Elytrigia taxa, mostly E. xoliveri but also of E. xobtusiuscula, E. xlaxa and 

. E. repens. E. atherica is absent. 

Map prepared using Alan Morton's DMAP programme. 

However Halliday (1997), having had material from Cumbria critically checked by Dr T.A. Cope, 

found that what was thought to be Elytrigia atherica was the male sterile hybrid Elytrigia xoliveri 

(E. repens x E. atherica). This prompted a more detailed investigation of the supposed E. atherica 

populations in v.c. 60 and elsewhere in north-western England and northern Wales. Whilst the text


accompanying the map for E. atherica in the New Atlas (Leach, 2002) recognises that there might be 

identification problems towards the north of E. atherica's range all the supposed records for 

E. atherica were published with the exception of those for v.c. 60. Here the records were omitted at 

the last minute in the light of growing evidence of a more complicated situation. 

Coastal Elytrigia in v.c. 60 and elsewhere 

In v.c. 60 supposed E. atherica dominates parts of the upper salt marshes in Morecambe Bay and in 

the estuaries of the Rivers Lune, Wyre and Ribble. 

Wheldon & Wilson (1907) recorded E. atherica at five localities in Morecambe Bay and in the 

Lune and Wyre estuaries with a further record added on the Keer estuary (part of Morecambe Bay) in 

1912 (Wheldon & Wilson, 1925). At that time the identity of the grass was causing problems as the 

Keer estuary gathering was identified as 'Agropyron pungens R. & S. var. aristatum Hack.' and 

material from Preesall on the Wyre estuary circulated in 1899 (Wheldon, 1901) prompted debate. 

Fortunately these and other voucher specimens survived for Dr Cope to check. All are E. xoliveri 

(E. repens x E. atherica) with the exception of one gathering in 1911 from Fleetwood on the Wyre 

estuary that is E. atherica. 

More recently Gray & Scott (1987) refer to the variability of E. atherica in Morecambe Bay and 

suggested a hybrid complex with E. juncea (Sand Couch) may be involved. 

Elsewhere in north-western England HaIliday (1997) doubts the validity of old records of 

E. atherica in Cumbria whilst in South Lancaster (v.c. 59) Savidge, Heywood & Gordon (1963) report 

one record for E. atherica from the south bank of the Ribble estuary near Southport. However a 

voucher for this has not been found. On the other hand a plant collected by W.G. Travis in 1911 on 

the north bank of the Mersey estuary at Hale (NMW) was confirmed as E. xoliveri although apart 

from Travis, opinion at the time suggested it was E. repens (Travis, 1912). De Tabley (1899) and 

Newton (1971) reported E. atherica as occurring on both the Mersey and Dee estuaries in v.c. 58. 

Specimens from the Dee shore at LIV suggest that both E. xoliveri (colI, J.H. Lewis, 1877) and 

E. atherica from clay banks (coil. Robert Brown, c.1870s) were present. At that time the shore was 

sandy and the only salt marshes were 6 or 7kms upstream of where the specimens were collected. 

W. Harrison collected another specimen of E. xoliveri in 1914 on the north Wirral shore at Meols 

again when only sandy shores were present. In northern Wales Wyune (1993) reported four records of 

E. atherica, one dating from 1850, for the Flint (v.c. 51) shore of the Dee estuary. Goronwy Wynne 

has a voucher specimen for one of these records but this is E. xoliveri. 

With this background of confusion it was decided to collect voucher material from all the major 

salt marshes in v.c. 60 and from further afield where possible. In v.c. 60 no E. atherica was found. 

However in addition to E. xoliveri, confirmed as occurring commonly and extensively, 

E. xobtusiuscula (E. atherica x E. juncea), E. x/axa (E. repens x E. juncea) and E. repens (Common 

Couch) were also found, sometimes abundantly. 

In v.c. 60, E. xoliveri often forms a characteristic monoculture, or occasionally with a few plants of 

Aster tripolium (Sea Aster) and Suaeda maritima (Annual Sea-bIite), on the highest parts of ungrazed 

or lightly grazed salt marshes on muddy substrates. There it often occurs in a zone I - 3m or more 

wide and up to lkm or more in length above the mid-marsh communities and where inundation occurs 

by most spring tides. This community is probably ascribed to the 'Elymus pycnanthus' salt marsh 

community (SM 24) of Rodwell (2000) who indicates that it occurs on generally well-drained 

substrates in salt marshes from the Ribble estuary to Morecambe Bay. However it is more 

characteristic of salt marshes in south-eastern England. This would be in accordance with E. atherica 

belonging to the coastal European Southern Temperate tloristic element (Preston & Hill, 1997), which 

might be expected to reach its northern limits in north-western England. 

Closely related to SM 24 is the' Elymus repens' salt marsh community (SM 28). This occupies a 

similar zone and Rodwell (2000) suggests it is less consistently confined to well drained sites and 

occasionally occurs on waterlogged clays. It is however characteristic of salt marshes in western 

England and Wales and in south-western Scotland. This community occurs in north-western England 

from the Dee to Morecambe Bay where it occupies a variety of substrates ranging from mud to 

stabilised shingle.


On the north bank of the Dee estuary the upper salt marsh is often dominated by a mosaic of 

communities in which the background is formed by E. repens and within which there are islands of 

hybrid Elytrigia. These are both E. xoliveri and E. xobtusiuscula. In v.c. 60 E. xobtusiuscula was 

usually found in different parts of the marsh to E. x oliveri. Towards the mouth of the Dee estuary the 

shore becomes progressively sandier and less muddy with fore dunes dominated by E. juncea forming 

the 'Elymusfarctus ssp. boreali-at/anticus' fore dune community, SD 4 (Rodwell, 2000). E. juncea is 

common along the sandy and shingle shore of north-western England and it seemed likely that it might 

form hybrids with E. repens. This proved to be correct and a few plants were found scattered in 

v.c. 60 ranging from sandy salt marshes to mobile sand dunes. In v.c. 59 E. xlaxa was found more 

frequently with colonies on sandy ground at Seaforth, Liverpool at the mouth of the Mersey estuary 

and on sandy salt marshes at Marshside, Southport at the mouth of the Ribble estuary. 

Nevertheless E. atherica still grows in north-western England. Using the label data for specimens 

of E. atherica from Wirral it was possible to identifY the precise location of 19 th century records. At 

that time there was no salt marsh in the vicinity and the colonies were found on wet clay banks or 

sandy ground by the shore. Today E. atherica grows in the same area and so far three extant colonies 

have been identified; one on wet clay, another on sandy ground and a third by a sea wall at the top of a 

salt marsh. Salt marsh now covers extensive areas of the Dee estuary in front of the E. atherica 

colonies. However whilst the plants are male fertile no seed is produced. 

As Elytrigia atherica is a member of the European Southern Temperate element of the British flora 

the possibility that summer maximum temperatures could limit seed viability was considered. Pigott 

& Huntley (1981) showed how important this was for Tilia cordata (Small-leaved Lime) also reaching 

its northern limits in north-western England. They demonstrated that for good seed set three or more 

consecutive days when the temperature reached 20°C were required at specific periods following 

pollination and that this approximated to the 20°C isotherm for mean daily maximum temperatures for 

August. They published a map based on the Climatological Atlas of the British Isles published in 

1952 that showed that the average means of daily maximum air temperature along the coast of 

north-western England for the period 1901 - 1930 was between 18°C and 19°C. This might indicate 

that maximum summer temperature were not high enough on Wirral for Elytrigia atherica to set seed. 

However since then the Central England Temperature series shows that whilst summers have become 

warmer by 0.2°C (mean summer temperature) during the 20 tl • century there has also been a significant 

increase in the incidence of 'hot' days (maximum temperature over 20°C, especially during the 1990s 

(Hulme & Jenkins, 1998). Since 1966 the University of Liverpool has kept temperature records at 

their botanic garden at Ness, some 7kms upstream of the Elytrigia atherica sites. These show that the 

mean maximum temperature for both July and August is above 20°C and that in the warm summer of 

2003 these were 21.4°e for July and 21.1 °e for August. Furthermore there were few days in these two 

months when maximum temperatures did not reach 20°e. Thus given the significant summer 

warming that has taken place in recent years then if summer maximum temperature were a limiting 

factor Wirral populations of Elytrigia atherica might have been expected to set seed, at least in 2003. 

That no seed was set suggests other factors are involved. 

Discussion 

A number of issues are raised by these observations. Elytrigia atherica was always a rare plant in 

north-western England with only a few of the older records being confirmed whereas the previously 

unrecorded hybrid E. xoliveri was present since at least from the second half of the 19 th century. 

However whilst E. xoliveri dominates some salt marshes other taxa are involved. These include, 

besides a few colonies of E. atherica, an abundance of Elytrigia repens, often in a glaucous form, 

E. juncea, E. xobtusiuscula and E. xlaxa. It may be that further work will show that at least some of 

the glaucous leaved E. repens is E. repens ssp. arenosa recorded for the Sefton Sand dunes at Formby 

(v.c. 59) (Leach, 2002). 

Presumably fertile Elytrigia atherica was present in north-western England at some time but at the 

moment it is not known what governs fertility. Nevertheless the pollen of existing colonies looks good 

so presumably repeated hybridisation events may occur. However vigorous rhizomatous species do


Acknowledgements: 

I am grateful to Dr G. Halliday for drawing my attention to the problem, to the curators of herbaria 

who let me examine their Elytrigia collections and to Keith Hatton of Liverpool University for providing 

meteorological data. Also to my wife, Barbara, for map preparation. I am especially grateful to 

Dr T.A Cope who identified old and freshly gathered material as well as tutoring me in the diagnostic 

features of this group. 

References: 

ADAM, 2000. Morecambe Bay salt marshes: 25 years of change, in British Saltmarshes (eds B.R. 

Sherwood, D.G Gardiner and T. Harris), pp. 81 - 107. Forest Text for the Linnean Society of 

London. London. 

Cox, J. 2003. A sea couch hybrid Elytrigia x drucei inland along an old Dorset tramway. BSBI News 

94: 21-22. 

DE TABLEY, LORD, 1899. The Flora of Cheshire. Longmans, Green and Co. London. 

DOODY, J.P. 1999. Salt marshes and sand dunes - natural or not, in Ecology and Landscape Development 

A History of the Mersey Basin (ed. E.F. Greenwood), pp. 176-173. Liverpool University 

Press, National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside. Liverpool. 

GRAY, AJ. & SCOTT, R. 1987. Salt marshes in Morecambe Bay: an assessment of present ecological 

knowledge (eds N.A. Robinson & AW. Pringle), pp. 97-117. Centre for North-west Regional 

Studies in conjunction with Morecambe Bay Study Group. Lancaster. 

HALLIDAY, G. 1997. A flora of Cumbria. Centre for North West Regional Studies, University of 

Lancaster. Lancaster. 

HULME, M. & JENKINS, G.J. 1998. Climate change scenarios for the UK: scientific report. UKCIP 

Technical Report No.!. Climatic Research Unit. Norwich 

LEAcH, S.J. 2002. Accounts of Elytrigia atherica taxa in New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora (eds 

C.D. Preston, D.A. Pearman and T.D. Dines), p. 794. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 

MARSHALL, J.D. 1967. The autobiography of William Stout of Lancaster 1665-1752. Manchester 

University Press for the Chetham Society. Manchester. 

NEWTON, A. 1971. Flora of Cheshire. Cheshire Community Council. Chester. 

PIGOTT, C.D. & HUNTLEY, J.P. 1981. Factors controlling the distribution of Tilia cordata at the northern 

limits of its geographical range Ill. Nature and causes of seed sterility. New Phytologist 87: 

817-839. 

PRESTON, C.D. & HILL, M.O. 1997. The geographical relationships of British and Irish vascular plants. 

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 124: 1-20. 

RODWELL, J.S., ed. 2000. British Plant Communities vol. 5, maritime communities and vegetation of 

open habitats. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 

SAVIDGE, lP., HEYWOOD, V.H. & GORDON, V., eds 1963. Travis's Flora of South Lancashire. Liverpool 

Botanical Society. Liverpool. 

TRAVIS, W.G. 1912. Report for 1911. Botanical Society and Exchange Club 3: 144. 

WHELDON, J.A 1901. Report for 1899. Botanical Society and Exchange Club 1899: 615-616. 

WHELDON, J.A & WILSON, A. 1907. The Flora of West Lancashire. Henry Young & Sons. Liverpool. 

WHELDON, J.A & WILSON, A. 1925. West Lancashire Flora: Notes, Additions and Extinctions. Lancashire 

and Cheshire Naturalist 17: 117-125. 

WYNNE, G. 1993. Flora ofFlintshire. Gee & Son. Denbigh. 

ERIc F. GREENWOOD, 10 Gay ton Parkway, Gay ton, Wirral, Merseyside L60 3SS 

PLANTS AT THE EDGE - THE SOUTHERN LIMIT OF ERIGERON 

BOREALlS 

On 12lh August 2003, with not a grouse in sight, Theo Loizou, Leslie Tucker and I climbed Meall na 

Samhna, west of Killin on Loch Tay. Theo was surveying squares north of Glen Dochart on behalf of 

Scottish Natural Heritage. After an interesting day on this rarely-visited ground just south of the main


Breadalbane ridge between Glens Dochart and Lochay, Theo struck south-west for his final quest, a 

historic record of the montane eyebright (Euphrasiafrigida) near the summit of Meall Eoghainn in the 

lkm square NN4733. Arriving on a grassy ledge near a rocky outcrop at 880m OD, we soon spotted 

the Euphrasia. While Theo made notes I walked a few metres towards the rocks and came face-toface 

with a fine plant of Alpine Fleabane (Erigeron borealis) (see colour section, plate 1), with another 

further up the rockface. Despite Theo's excitement at this find (see below) it was only later that it 

dawned on me that the plant in the photo may be the most southerly E. borealis in the world. 

There is no lack of plants that reach their northern limit in the British Isles, including many of the 

hundred or so species belonging to the (sub)Mediterranean-(sub)Atlantic 'floristic elements' defined 

by Preston & Hill (1997). Presumably our equable climate, tempered by the Gulf Stream, is the main 

reason. By contrast. the number of non-endemic species whose southern limit lies in Britain can be 

counted (almost) on the fingers of one hand. Their occurrence here when their main populations lie far 

to the north is still not understood to everyone's satisfaction, so individual examples of extreme plants 

may be of some interest. and not totally trivial. 

Such species are found among those included by Preston & Hill in the most northerly of their four 

biomes, the Arctic-montane, and specifically among those eighteen species which do not grow on 

Eurasian mountains south of Britain. Eleven of these species occur in the contiguous United States 

(USDA 2002), and several in Canada as far south as Newfoundland (Meades, Gay & Brouillet 2000), 

while another, Woolly Willow (Salix lanata ssp. lanata), grows, according to Anderberg (2003), in the 

southern Irkutsk region of Siberia. This leaves six Arctic-montane species having their global 

southern limit in Britain: Arctic Mouse-ear (Cerastium arcticum) (found also in Greenland and 

Labrador), Mountain Willow (Salix arbuscula) and Whortle-leaved Willow (s. myrsinites), Arctic 

Sandwort (Arenaria norvegica), Norwegian Mugwort (Artemisia norvegica). and Erigeron borealis 

(whose English name is a misnomer - unlike a related plant, E. neglectus, it is not found in the Alps). 

To these should be added a few plants from Preston & Hill's Boreal-montane biome, including some 

in critical genera such as Euphrasia raising difficult questions of taxonomy. I am inclined to accept 

only three - Long-stalked Orache (Atriplex longipes) and Rock Whitebeam (Sorbus rupicola) 

certainly, and Northern Knotgrass (Polygonum boreale) probably - as distinct species, non-endemic 

to the British Isles and with their southern limit here. (The Lady's-mantle (Alchemilla wichurae), with 

a single outlier in the Sudeten Mountains, just fails this test). 

These three, and the first three of the six Arctic-montane species, are relatively widely distributed, 

with post-1987 New Atlas records from 27,59,70,28,26 and 38 hectads (lO-km squares) respectively 

(Preston, Pearman & Dines 2002). It would be fruitless, except in (possibly) the Mouse-ear's 

Snowdonia stations, and (probably) those of the Whitebeam in Devon, to attempt to identify the most 

southerly colony, let alone pinpoint a particular plant. The remaining three species are much rarer. 

Arenaria norvegica occurs as two subspecies whose populations fluctuate but in most years number 

several thousand, both ssp. anglica and ssp. norvegica behaving as armuals or biennials (Wigginton 

1999). For this reason, and putting aside the question of whether, following for example Anderberg 

(2003) both taxa should be treated as subspecies of the widespread Fringed Sandwort (Arenaria 

ciliata), the concept of 'most southerly plant' is a moving target. This leaves two perennials of which 

Artemisia norvegica (the British plant is var. scotica, var. saxatilis being widespread in the United 

States (USDA 2002» is known from just three Ross-shire mountains. At each site there are hundreds, 

and in one case many thousands, of plants, including one colony extending over 9 hectares (Wigginton 

1999). E. borealis, by contrast, is not subdivided and has a small British population that can be 

monitored down to individual plants. 

The New Atlas records six post-1987 hectads for Alpine Fleabane, in Breadalbane (M. Perth) and 

the Eastern Highlands (Angus and S. Aberdeen). Breadalbane, the more southerly of the two districts, 

supports a population of about 600, the Eastern Highlands fewer than 300 (Wigginton 1999). There 

are post-l 987 Breadalbane records from NN64 (which includes Ben Lawers) and NN65, a pre-1970 

record from Meall nan Tarmachan in NN54, and a further post-1987 record in NN43. Richard Thomas 

tells me that E. borealis was found here in 1999, probably by Clive Dixon, on an eastern outlier of Ben 

Heasgarnich. Meall Eoghainn is about 5km further south, in a square for which SNH has no record,


old or new (this accounts for Theo's excitement). It seems that this site for E. borealis at latitude N56° 

27' 37", and the particular plant in the photo, is indeed the southernmost in the world. 

References: 

ANDERBERG, A. 2003. Den virtuella jloran (http://linnaeus.nrm.selflora). Naturhistoriska Rijksmuseet, 

Sweden. 

MEA DES, S.J., GAY, S.H. & BROUILLET L. 2000. Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of 

Newfoundland and Labrador (http://nfrnuseum.com/meades.htm). The Provincial Museum of 

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. 

PRESTON C.D. & HILL M.O. 1997. The geographical relationships of British and Irish vascular plants. 

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 124: 1-120. 

PRESTON C.D., PEARMAN D.A. & DINES T.D. 2002. New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. Oxford 

University Press, Oxford, UK. 

USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data 

Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA. 

WIGGINTON, M.l. (ed.). 1999. British Red Data Books 1 Vascular plants. 3,d edn. Joint Nature Conservation 

Committee, Peterborough, UK. 

JOHN A. EDGINGTON, 19 Mecklenburgh Square, London WCIN 2AD 

WHAT LIES ACROSS THE CHANNEL? 

Since recently moving to Brussels, I have been mentally comparing the floras of Belgium and Britain. 

As the two countries are so close geographically and climatically, you may be interested in my observations. 

Brussels has an average annual temperature of 10°C and an annual rainfall of about 80cm. 

This is similar to southern Britain, for example the average yearly temperature at Kew is 10AoC, 

though it is dryer in southern England at around 60cm per year. Summer maximum temperatures are 

also similar, though winter averages are about a degree colder in Belgium. As it is late in the season I 

have only had an opportunity to look at the urban flora, but this has some interesting differences, when 

compared to the UK. 

The most obvious difference was the complete lack of Senecio squalidus, instead, in all the same 

habitats, is found S. inaequidens. As far as I have found there is no record of S. squalidus in Belgium. 

S. inaequidens has been recorded in Britain and has occasionally naturalised. Its further spread across 

Britain has long been prophesied, but for some reason it has not yet increased. 

There are many other introduced weeds that may be familiar to British Botanists, though they 

appear more common here. For example, Portulaca oleracea, Amaranthus retrojlexus, Setaria viridis, 

Echinochloa crus-galli and Bidens frondosa. These species are all well naturalised here and some are 

serious weeds in gardens and farms. Many of these plants are weeds on a global scale and as our 

climate warms one would expect to see them increase in Britain. 

A species I had not seen before was Duchesnea indica (Yellow-flowered Strawberry), which has 

escaped from gardens all over Brussels. I first took it for Fragaria vesca until I saw its yellow flowers 

and larger fruits. 

So far I have seen little difference in the native Belgian flora to that of southern Britain. However, 

Cirsium oleraceum, is common in woods and waysides, whereas it is an uncommon introduction to 

Britain. Also, Epipactis helleborine is a weed of gardens and parks, much like is in the north-eastern 

USA and only a few parts of the UK. 

During 2004 I hope to visit more of the native habitats of Belgium. There are many places of 

Botanical interest here. The Ardennes has a good limestone flora and extensive forests. In the 

north-west there are large moorlands and bogs, while along the coast there are salt marshes and dunes. 

Hopefully, I shall report my findings at a later date. 

QUENTIN GROOM, Rue Jean Baptiste de Keyser l57A, 1970 Wezembeek-Oppem, BELGIUM; email: 

qgroom@reticule.co.uk


A KEY TO BROMEAE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATIC ZONES OF 

SOUTHERN EUROPE, SOUTH WEST ASIA, AND NORTH AFRICA 

The key is designed to assist the identification of Bromeae in the Mediterranean climatic zones below 

1000 metres of altitude of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, the Balkan countries including Greece, 

Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the Mediterranean 

islands. In these zones most Bromeae growth occurs following rainfall during the mild October to 

April winter and ceases in the hot summer droughts. The key is written primarily for British botanists 

visiting these countries and the nomenclature is as in Stace (1997), Tzvelev (1976), Holub (1973) and 

Tutin (1962). 

The key has been developed and tested by: 

1. a detailed study of the existing Floras and much other published data, 

2. examining over 2000 (mostly herbarium) specimens of Bromeae species that were collected in the 

countries listed above, 

3. cultivating all the grasses in the key (except Bromus pumilio, B. chrysopogon and Bromopsis 

cappadocica) and studying their growth. 

KEY TO GENERA 

1. Lower glume with 3-5(7) veins; upper glume with 5-7 (9) veins 

1. Lower glume with 1 (3) veins; upper glume with 3(5) veins 

2. Annuals without sterile shoots at flowering; spikelets ovate to linear-lanceolate, not flattened 

Bromus 

2. Annual or biennial; spikelets broadly-lanceolate, strongly flattened because the lemmas 

fold longitudinally along the thickened central vein (keel); awns 0-3( -4)mm long 

Ceratochloa cathartica 

3. Perennials with sterile shoots at flowering; spikelets narrowly oblong, tapering near the apex; 

awns not longer than the lemmas or absent Bromopsis 

3. Annuals without sterile shoots at flowering; spikelets lanceolate becoming wider at the apex 

as they begin to open and thus then wedge-shaped; lemmas narrow with long awns Anisantha 

BROMUS 

1. Some upper lemmas with 3 or more awns; awns often reddish or purple and eventually 

curving out or spreading 2 

1. Lemmas with fewer than 3 awns 3 

2. Upper lemmas with 3(-5) awns, lateral awns often shorter and thinner B. danthoniae 

2. Most lemmas with 5-9 awns B. pumilio (Section Boissiera) 

3. Awns arising from the bottom of a deeply cleft lemma apex; lemmas 8-9mm long 

3. Awns arising on the back of the lemmas 

4. Panicle 1O-20cm wide with very long branches; anthers >3mm long 

4. Panicle


8. Panicle narrowly-oblong; spikelets 25-45 mm long; lemmas 11-18mm long; 

awns arising >4mm below the apex of the lemmas B. alopecuros 

8. Panicle broadly-oblong to ovate; spikelets 8-25mm long; lemmas 7-11.5mm long; 

awns arising 1.5-4mm below the apex of the lemmas 9 

9. Spikelets 20-25mm long; lemmas 9-11.5mm long; awns arising 3-4mm below 

the apex ofthe lemmas B. chrysopogon 

9. Spikelets 8-20mm long; lemmas 7-8mm long; awns arising 1.5-2.5mm below 

the apex of the lemmas B. scoparius 

10. Panicle with slender flexuous pedicels/branches; awns arising 2-3.5mm below 

the apex of the lemmas; awns always strongly curved out, at least at fruiting, 

and often some twisted B. intermedius 

10. Pedicelslbranches not slender and flexuous; awns arising


3. Plant in patches with long creeping rhizomes; panicle ± erect; awns 0-2.5mm long B. inermis 

3. Plant loosely tufted without long creeping rhizomes; panicle lax; with long branches; 

awns >3mm long 4 

4. Upper leaf-sheath usually with long soft hairs; panicle very lax and spreading, with long 

patent branches; several thick cilia usually present on the edge of the culm at the lowest 

panicle-node B. ramosa 

4. Upper leaf-sheath usually with minute patent hairs (30 x); panicle erect, lax, and narrow 

with shorter branches, often swept to one side; thick cilia usually absent or only a few on 

the edge of the culm at the lowest panicle-node B. benekenii 

ANISANTHA 

1. Panicle stiffly erect and compact; all pedicels shorter than their spikelets 2 

I. Panicle erect, lax or compact; at least some pedicels/branches longer than their spikelets 4 

2. At least one pedicel> 1 Omm long 

2. Panicle dense with no pedicels > 1 Omm long 

A. madritensis 

3 

3. Panicle obovate, very dense and congested with many spikelets; lemmas lanceolate, 

2-4mm wide; awns straight A. rubens 

3. Panicle narrowly fan-shaped, less dense with fewer spikelets; lemmas linear 1.5-2mm wide; 

awns curving out and often twisted at fruiting A. fasciculata 

4. Panicle erect, lax or dense; culm at lowest panicle-node scabrid or with minute hairs (30x) 

upper glurne 20-42mm long; callus scar at the base of the lemma oval/elliptic; awns 

>35mm long 

4. Panicle lax, and spreading; upper glume 7-1 8 (-20)mm long; awns 2 small spikelets or one-sided 

with several spikelets from the rachis; culm at lowest panicle-node minutely pubescent (30 x); 

upper glume 7-12mm long A. tectorum 

NOTES 

Dissection and especially the assessment of lemma texture is facilitated if spikelets are first soaked 

for an hour or more in water with a few drops of detergent. 

Lemma texture is determined by gently prodding pre-soaked lemmas with a blunt needle as 

described in Spalton(2001). Protruding veins should not be used as the sole determinant ofIemma 

texture because sometimes leathery lemmas can be quite thin and thus veins can be protruding (this 

is frequent in B. japonicus) and, in others, pubescence can mask protruding veins. If a caryopsis is 

present, it should be removed before doing this test. 

Measurements that are not consistent should be averaged and more than one specimen should be 

examined. 

Where there is an overlap in the measurements used to distinguish taxa, the character should only 

be used ifthe measured lengths are outside the overlapping lengths. 

'Panicle-branches' are measured from the node on the rachis to the base of the terminal spikelet. 

'Pedicels/branches' means pedicels or branches or both combined. 

Spikelet lengths and widths are measured before fruit has formed. 

Spikelet and lemma measurements exclude the awns. 

The lemma measured is the lowest lemma or the second lowest, whichever is longer. 

Anther measurements refer to mature undehisced anthers from the lowest florets; other anthers are 

smaller.


Determinations should be checked against the more detailed descriptions in the publications listed 

in the Bibliography. 

Immature plants can be confusing. Immaturity is indicated in Bromeae when the glumes appear to 

be unusually long in relation to the length of the spikeIet. On investigation it will be found that the 

glumes, which always mature early to protect the immature spikelet, are of normal length and it is 

the rest of the spikelet which is short because it is still immature. Microscopic examination will 

reveal fragile translucent anthers and immature pollen. 

The key does not include some very rare species but the author would be pleased to examine and 

determine specimens (whole plants, please). 

Two new combinations are now published: 

Anisantha fasciculata (C.Pres1), Spalton comb. novo Basionym: Bromus fasciculatus C.Presl, Cyp. 

Gram. Sic. 39 (1820). 

Anisantha diandra var. rigida (Roth), Spalton comb. novo Basionym: Bromus rigidus Roth in Bot. 

Mag. (Roemer & Usteri) 4(10): 21 (1790). 

I thank Robert Portal and Clive Stace for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the key, the 

Curators of E, K, LTR, NMW, and RNG for the loan of specimens and all those botanists from 

Britain and abroad who have sent me specimens. I hope that they will continue to do so. 

Bibliography: 

ACEDo, C. & LLAMAS, F. 1999. The Genus Bromus L. (Poaceae) in the Iberian Peninsula. J.Cramer, 

Berlin. 

AINOUCHE, M.L. et al. 1999. The allotetraploid invasive Bromus hordeaceus L. (Poaceae): genetic 

diversity, origin and molecular evolution. Folio. Geobot. 34: 405-419. 

BAclc,T. & JOGAN, N. 2001. Multivariate morphometric study of the Bromus erectus group (Poaceae, 

Bromeae) in Slovenia. Phyton. (Austria) 4112: 295-311. 

BOR, N.L. 1968 in C.C. Townsend et al. eds. Flora of Iraq. Ministry of Agriculture, Iraq. 

BOR, N.L. 1970 in K.H. Rechinger ed. Flora Iranica. Academische Druck, Graz. 

BOR, N.L. 1985 in R.D. Meikle ed. Flora of Cyprus. 2. RBG, Kew. 

CHRTEK, J. & SLAVIK, B. 1994. Contribution to the Flora of Cyprus - B. chrysopogon. Flora Mediterranea 

4: 18. 

COPE, T.A. & HOSNI, H.A. 1991. A key to Egyptian grasses. RBG, Kew. 

ESNAuLT, M.A. 1984. Etudes sur la variabilite morphologique de Bromus madritensis. Phytomorph. 

34: 91-99. 

FEINBRUN-DoTHAN, N. 1986. Flora Palaestina 4. Jerusalem. 

HOLMSTROM, G. & SCHOLZ, H. 2000. Bromus bidentatus spec. nova and B. lepidus, two odd bromegrasses 

(Gramineae). Bot. Jahbr. Syst. 122: 195-200. 

HOlOB,1. 1973. New Names in Phanerogamae 2. Folio. Geobot. Phytotax. 8: 159-179. 

KALHEBER, H. & SCHOLZ, H. (2001) in R. Hand ed. Bromus chrysopogon in Supplementary Note to the 

Flora of Cyprus. Willdenowia 31: 406. 

KOZUHROV, S. et al. 1981. Evolutionary patterns in some brome-grass species (Bromus) of the Balkan 

Peninsula. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 102: 381-391. 

MAIRE, R. 1955. Flore de I 'Afrique du Nord 3. Paul Chevalier, Paris. 

OJA, T. 1998. Isoenzyme diversity and phylogenetic relationships in the section Bromus of the grass 

genus Bromus. Bio. Syst. Ecol. 26: 403 -413. 

OJA, T. 1999. Allozyme diversity and interspecific differentiation in two diploid brome-grass species, 

Bromus tectorum and Bromus sterilis. Plant. Bioi. 1: 679-686. 

OJA, T. & JAASKA, V. 1996. Isoenzyme data on the genetic divergence and allopolyploidy in the section 

Genea of the grass genus Bromus (Poaceae). Hereditas 125: 249-255. 

OJA, T. & JAASKA, V. 1998. Allozyme diversity and phylogenetic relationships among diploid annual 

bromes (Bromus). Ann. Bot. Fenn. 35: 123-130.


OlA, T. & LAARMANN, H. 2002. Comparative study of the ploidy series Bromus sterilis, B. diandrus, 

and B. rigidus (Poaceae) based on chromosome numbers, morphology and isozymes. Plant. BioI. 

4: 484-491 

OlA, T. 2002. Genetic divergence and interspecific differentiation in the Bromus madritensis complex 

(Poaceae) based on isozyme data. Bio. Syst. Ecol. 30: 433-449. 

OlA,T. 2002. Bromus fasciculatus Presl- a third diploid progenitor of Bromus section Genea allopolyploids 

(Poaceae). Hereditas 137: 113-118. 

PORTAL, R. 1995. Bromus de France. 16 Rue Louis Brioude, 43750, Vals-pres-le Puy, France. 

RIVAS PONCE, M.A. 1988. Nuevos datos para la diagnosis de Bromus rubens L. y B. madritensis 

(Poaceae). Lagascalia 15: 89-93. 

SALES, F. 1993. Taxonomy and nomenclature of Bromus sect. Genea. Edinb. J. Bot 50(1): 1-31. 

SALES, F. 1994. A reassessment of the Bromus madritensis complex: a multivariate approach. Israel J. 

Plant Sciences. 42: 245-255. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1972. Bromus brachystachys Homung und B. pseudobrachystachys H.Scholz spec. novo 

Bot. Jb. 91: 462-469. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1974. Bromus chrysopogon Viviani - einer wieder als art bewertete Gramineae aus dem 

Mittelmeergebeit. Willdenowia 7: 409-413. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1978. Synaptospermie und heterodiasporie in der gattung Bromus. Willdenowia 8: 

341-350. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1981. Der Bromus-pectinatus-Komplex (Gramineae) im Nahem und Mittleren Osten. Bot. 

Jahrb. Syst. 102: 471-495. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1981. Bemerkungen iiber Bromus madritensis und B. rubens (Gramineae). Willdenowia 11: 

249-258. 

SCHOLZ, H. 1987. Delimitation and classification of Bromus fasciculatus (Poaceae). PI. Syst., Evol. 

155: 277-282. 

SMITH, P.M. 1970. Taxonomy and nomenclature ofbrome-grasses. Notes RBG Edinb. 30: 361-375. 

SMITH, P.M. 1970. Serology and species relationships in annual bromes. Ann. Bot. 36 1-30. 

SMITH, P.M. 1981. Ecotypes and subspecies in annual brome-grasses. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 102: 497-509. 

SMITH, P.M. (1980) in T.G. Tutin et al., eds. Flora Europaea 5. Cambridge University Press. 

SMITH, P.M. (1985) in P.H. Davis et af. eds. Flora of Turkey and E. Aegean islands 9. Edinburgh 

University Press. 

SMITH, P.M. 1985. Observations on Turkish brome-grasses. Notes RBG. Edinb. 42: 491-501. 

SMITH, P.M. & SALES, F. 1993. Bromus L. taxonomy and relationship of some species with small 

spikelets. Edinb. J. Bot. 50: 149-171. 

SPALTON, L.M. 2001. A new subspecies of Bromus hordeaceus L. Watsonia 23: 525-531. 

SPALTON, L.M. 2002. An analysis of the characters of Bromus racemosus L., B. commutatus and 

B. secalinus L. Watsonia 24: 193-202. 

SPALTON, L.M. 2003. Observations on Bromopsis benekenii (Lange) Holub in Britain. Watsonia 24: 

535-538. 

STACE, C.A 1997. New Flora of the British Isles, 2 nd ed. Cambridge University Press. 

STEINBERG, C.H. 1981. Nomenklatorische Typen aus der Gattung Bromus in italienischen Herbarien. 

Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 102: 411-425. 

TUTIN, T.G. (1962) in AR. Clapham et al. eds. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. 

TZVELEV, N.N. 1976. Grasses of the Soviet Union, translated A.A.Balkema (1983), Rotterdam. 

TZVELEV, N.N. 1987. The System of Grasses (Poaceae) and their Evolution. Komarov Readings 37. 

Leningrad, translated V.V. Michaelova, ed. A Cronquist. New York Botanical Garden. 

VINEY, D.E. 1996. Illustrated Flora of North Cyprus 2. ARG Gantner-Verlag K.G.Vaduz. 

WALTERS, S.M. 1989. European Garden Flora 2. Cambridge University Press. 

LAURlE M. SPALTON, 6 Marine Parade, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, EX9 6NS, U.K. Tel: (01395) 445813. 

Emai1: laurie@bromus.fsworld.co.uk


SCROPHULARIA SCORODONIA (SCROPHULARIACEAE): NATIVE IN 

SOUTH HAMPSHIRE? 

I first recorded Scrophularia scorodonia (Balm-leaved Figwort) on Burrow Island, Portsmouth, 

SU620007, V.c. 11 (S. Hants.) on 29 th June 1996. The plants were growing just behind the shore with 

Urtica dioica (Common Nettle), on a low scrubby bank covered in Hedera helix (Common Ivy). 

Burrow Island is a small, wooded, uninhabited island, about 12Sm long and SOm wide, situated on the 

west side of Portsmouth Harbour. It is accessible on foot only during the low tide period, using an 

exposed shingle spit. It is the site of the historic Fort St James. 

I did not realise the significance of this find, being the first record in Hampshire, until quite some 

time later during a conversation with Eric Clement. Although he originally dismissed my 

identification, on the basis that the species had not previously been recorded in Hampshire, he later 

visited the location with me and duly confirmed the record. 

When first assessing whether the record was native or introduced Eric and I both came to the 

conclusion that it had probably arrived naturally, and as S. scorodonia was considered native at that 

time we concluded that it marked an easterly outpost. After the Red Data Book (Wiggington 1999) 

was published, I concurred with Eric's suggestion that it could be an eastward extension of the native 

range in Britain, i.e. 'the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset'. Although the New Atlas 

(Preston et al. 2002) treats it as a neophyte and also shows scattered records for South Wales and 

eastern England, I still believe it should be considered native in its core range, although reasoned 

assessment should be applied beyond that. 

Two issues need to be considered: (a) whether S. scorodonia is native in Britain, and (b) whether it 

is native on Burrow Island. I will attempt to explain the reasoning behind my conclusion that it is 

native in both cases. 

Possible reasons for its presence are deliberate human introduction, accidental human introduction 

or natural arrival, the relevant factors involved in each are considered, with my assessment of 

likelihood for Britain and Burrow Island. 

There is a lack of records any distance inland, the plant lacks any outstanding visual appeal, and 

does not seem to have any less obvious applications, as a medicinal, crop, or ground-cover plant, for 

example, which would make it useful. It shows no preference for inhabited over uninhabited 

situations (Wiggington 1999). All these facts lead me to the conclusion that deliberate human 

introduction to Britain was highly unlikely, and on Burrow Island, which is virtually unknown even to 

locals, even more unlikely. 

There seems to me to be a very small likelihood of seeds transferring from a boat, car or person 

to its typical 'rather scruffy coastal or near-coastal habitats' as described by Wiggington (1999). If 

human elements were a contributory factor I would expect it to be found at used railway lines and 

active quarries, rather than disused/abandoned sites as mentioned by Wiggington. and more often 

in the vicinity of larger docks and resorts rather than (smaller?) ports and estuaries. It think it 

unlikely to be a result of accidental human introduction in Britain, and highly unlikely on Burrow 

Island. 

The fact that it favours port areas is probably incidental, and greater importance should be 

attached to the sheltered position for which port areas are selected, and the milder climate and less 

extreme weather conditions found in sheltered positions. These factors naturally increase the 

likelihood of any plant with oceanic requirements finding a niche. There is also a possibility of 

bird-assisted arrival, especially on coastal sites. A plant which has a known preference for coastal 

areas must surely have a fairly high possibility of arriving aided by no more than the tide and waves, 

or among flotsam. Natural arrival seems to be the most likely explanation for the presence of 

S. scorodonia in Britain. 

All things considered I think that natural arrival in Britain seems most likely, and therefore feel it 

should be considered a native here. I am also of the opinion that it has colonised Burrow Island by 

natural means and should also be considered native at this site. The distribution of Poa infirma (Early


Meadow-grass), which is similar to that of S. scorodonia, and yet is considered native in its core range, 

only strengthens my decision. 

Vaguely related, and not to be missed: On the day that Eric finally did confirm my find, he became 

intent on exploring the inner part of the island, ignoring my hints about time and tide . . . I went to 

where I could see the spit, and when I informed him that the spit was 'rapidly-disappearing' he finally 

took note, and we ended up racing along the spit in ankle-deep seawater. 

My thanks to Eric Clement and John Norton for comments and suggestions on this article. 

References: 

WIGGINGTON, M.J. ed. (1999). British Red Data Books, 1 vascular plants. 3 rd edn. JNCC, Peterborough. 

PRESTON, C.D., PEARMAN, DA, & DINES, T.D. (2002). New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. Oxford 


DEBBlE R. ALLAN, 13 Mill Pond Road, Gosport, Hants. P012 4QL emai1: debbie.allan1@ntlworid.com 

GERANIUM PURPUREUM SUBSPECIES 

With regard to the article by Peter Yeo in BSBI News 93, I am one of those responsible for doubts 

about the distinctiveness of the two subspecies. 

When I moved to Hampshire in 1978 the late Lady Anne Brewis introduced me to 'ssp. 

purpureum' growing upright on the S shore of the lagoon N of Hayling Golf Course, and to ssp. 

forsteri growing prostrate on the shingle S of the course. I could not see any difference in the 

sculpturing of the mericarp, only in the growth forms. The colonies by the lagoon died out due to 

scrub shading, but I found other upright plants in a sheltered position on the golf course, and later the 

late Paul Bowman found some similar N of the lagoon in a rootless ruined wartime building. 

As stated in Rich and Jermy (1998) page 212, Dr D. Eaton (not Easton) (of the then Portsmouth 

Polytechnic Biology Department) grew plants from the seed from the prostrate population on the 

shingle, and found that in cultivation they grew upright like the 'ssp. purpureum' plants on and to the 

N of the golf course. I therefore concluded that ssp. forsteri was merely a prostrate form induced by 

habitat. 

However what I have described as 'upright' growth above was upright in a zigzag fashion, and not 

with a single vertical stem as Yeo describes. I never realised that crucial difference in the growth 

forms, and I am grateful to him for clarifying this. All the Hayling plants were and are therefore 

ssp.forsteri. 

In the quotation that Yeo makes from Baker, the latter is wrong both in stating that forsteri is 

defined by its prostrate habit, and in stating that it only grows at the rear of certain shingle beaches. 

Given shelter it grows upright in other localities, but in zigzag fashion. 

Even great men make mistakes, and I think that the late E.F. Warburg was probablY wrong when 

he confirmed a (presumably upright) specimen from near the Hayling (Sinah Common) golf clubhouse 

as ssp. purpureum (Brewis et al. p.188). 

In the light of my experience I would not be surprised if the past and present colonies in W. Sussex 

to which Yeo refers, are all ssp.forsteri, and that ssp. purpureum is a plant of SW Britain. 

References: 

BREWIS, A., BOWMAN, P., & ROSE, F. 1996. The Flora of Hampshire. Colchester: Harley Books. 

RICH, T.C.G., & JERMY, A.C. 1998. The Plant Crib 1998. BSBI: London. 

Yeo, P.F. 2003. BSBI News 93 

EDwARD PRATT, 7 Bay Close,Swanage. Dorset BH19 IRE


BEE ORCHID (OPHRYS APIFERA) IN AYRSHIRE (V.C. 75) 

Historically Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) has always been exceedingly rare in Scotland, with no recent 

confirmed records in print. The earliest record in print for 0. apifera is a 1908 record from Southwick 

(v.c. 73) with a voucher at Edinburgh, while Summerhayes mentions an old occurrence in Lanarkshire 

v.c. 77. More recently the first edition of the Atlas of British Flora makes reference to unlocalised 

records from v.cc. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 & 77 and there is a 1980 record from Dolbeattie. There are no 

current records shown in Scotland in the New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. 

It was thus, with great excitement that a single plant of 0. apifera was discovered on the 18 th of 

August 2003 on an old industrial site in east Ayrshire. The single plant consisting of two stems had 

finished flowering and was fruiting profusely. The location has a rich flora including Broad-leaved 

Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine), Twayblade, (Listera ovata) and Common Spotted-orchid 

(Dactylorhiza fuchsii). The plant was growing in coarse grassland amongst Salix with the closest 

associates being Hedge-bedstraw (Galium mollugo), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), Fairy Flax 

(Linum catharticum), Mouse-ear-hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum) and Glaucous Sedge (Carex 

flacca). 

Geographically the nearest locations are on the north coast of Ireland, and this leads one to 

speculate that the Scottish plant has arisen from seed blown on the south-westerly winds from Ireland. 

Generally the location has much open ground and appears suitable for further colonisation by 

0. apifera specially in view of the run, of mild winters, it will be interesting to see if this becomes a 

biological reality. 

BRIAN LANEY, 5 South Close, Long Buckby, Northants, NN6 7PX; tel.: 01327843847; 

email: brian@laneyl.fsnet.co.uk 

PAUL STANLEY, Mulberry House, The Orchard, Brighstone, Isle ofWight P030 4QU 

CLEAVERS: SIZE, SEEDLINGS & FROST RESISTANCE 

On arable land, Cleavers (Galium aparine) is now classified as 'one of the world's worst weeds' 

(Holm et al.) 1977). According to Grime et al. (1988) its seeds need a brief exposure to chilling, but 

subsequent germination can occur over a protracted period. Spring seedlings consist of some welladvanced 

plantlets with large cotyledons, and others with just the emergent radicle. 

I use circles of Glyphosate to control the main perennial weeds (Nettles (Urtica dioica), Creeping 

Thistle (Cirsium arvense) in preparation for individual tree planting. Frost or fine, wet or dry, 

Cleavers seedlings appear on these patches every single month of the year, as well as on areas 

disturbed by moles, pheasants and badgers. Severe or prolonged frost can cause the seedlings to 

change colour or become flaccid, and even to collapse. This sequence, almost invariably lethal to 

vertical seedlings of other species (excepting flattened rosettes, e.g. some frost-resistant thistle 

seedlings), is not fatal to Cleavers seedlings. They spring back, resuming rapid growth when less 

cold. 

The family Rubiaceae consists of 630 genera and over 10,200 species (Mabberley 1997); most 

members are tropical. However the Galium genus, with 300 species in all is cosmopolitan: Europe has 

nearly 150 species, and Turkey over 100 (Hanf 1983; Mabberley 1997). The vigorous, widespread, 

frost-tolerant, annual Cleavers is remarkable when compared with its numerous tropical rainforest 

relatives, trees, shrubs and lianes. 

As usual with phosphate- and nitrate-loving herbs, the average maximum heights given in most 

textbooks are grossly inadequate. Enfeebled maxima for Cleavers are 1.2m (Grime et at. 1988), and 

1.5m, (Hanf 1983) presumably based on crop heights. Stace (1977) gives the more realistic maximum 

of 3m. Some of my young 3-4m trees are heavily festooned to the top with Cleavers by late summer, 

or bent double by contracted dried tangles, usually mixed in with 2m+ stinging nettles. September 

weeding involves snapped saplings (if careless), stings to the face; and hair downwards smothered in 

the small burrs! Under the tangles, next year's Cleavers seedlings and young plants have already


begun. When weeded, new ones appear in October, November, December; and January onwards in 

the following year. 

References: 

GRIME, lP., HODGSON, J.G. & HUNT, R. 1988. Comparative plant ecology. CUP. 

HANF, M. 1983. The arable weeds of Europe with their seedlings and seeds. BASF (UK Ltd.). 

Ludwigshafen. 

HOLM, L.G., PLUNCKNETT, D.L., PANCHO, lV. & HERBERGER, J.P. 1977). The world's worst weeds. 

University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu. 

MABBERLEY, D.J. 1997. The plant book. CUP. 

STACE, C.A .. 1997. New Flora of the British Isles. 2nd edn. CUP. 

JACK OLIVER, High View, Rhyls Lane, Lockeridge, Nr Marlborough, Wilts. SN8 4 ED 

LEMNA MINUTA V: ROOT CAPS AND ROOT CHLOROPLASTS 

In the early 1990s, Least Duckweed (Lemna minuta) was spreading very rapidly on canals (Smith 

1990); Last 1990; Oliver 1991; Briggs 1992). Since that time, L. minuta seems to have become the 

most common duckweed in Wilts., whether in water troughs and small ponds, or in rivers and lakes. 

Usually, but not always, the single root beneath the frond looks green, often with an intensified yellowgreen 

colourationjust above the root tip (compare Oliver 1993). I thought this worthy of further investigation, 

and of comparisons with Common Duckweed (L. minor). 

Fig. 1 (all figs. on colour section, plate 4), taken through a microscope, shows two doubled-back 

L. minuta roots, clearly illustrating the root caps which are Imm long. (L. minor root caps (not 

pictured) measure 2-3mm). Slight greening can be seen behind the growing points. 

Fig. 2 shows another much greener L. minuta root tip under higher magnification. Behind the 

meristematic area (already green) and surrounding the central vascular cylinder (stele) there seem to be 

dense masses of chIoroplasts measuring 3-51-\ (microns, or 3-5mm) across. This microphotography was 

on living wet preparations; but when covers lips were used and pressed down, the root caps can often be 

neatly squeezed off. No chloroplasts were seen in the cells of the extruded root caps. 

Fig. 3 shows the central parts of the single root of L. minuta (width O.1mm) and L. minor next to 

each other. The L. minor rootlet is twice the width of the L. minuta rootlet, but the latter is much more 

intensely green. At this magnification, the cell walls and stele are both very clear. Although not easily 

discernible, there were a few scattered chloroplasts in some of the L. minor cells. Chloroplasts were 

abundant in the L. minuta root tissues, often several per cell. 

Fig. 4 again shows the central part of a L. minuta root under the highest magnification possible 

with a living wet preparation. Chloroplasts (3-51-\ across) are clearly visible within the cells. 

Refocusing at various depths into the root cylinder seems to show that the chloroplasts are in all root 

tissues (excepting the root-cap cells, see above), including the central vascular cylinder. 

It would be neat to explain the success of L. minuta in competition with L. minor in terms of its 

greener roots. However, the roots of L. minuta are not always green; and L. minor roots often are 

green, sometimes strongly so! The possible advantage is that L. minuta appears to grow faster in 

colder weather; under comparable conditions, L. minuta also seems to mobilise the chloroplasts behind 

the green meristematic root-tip region more rapidly than L. minor. 

Acknowledgement: Appreciation is given to Brian & Joan Davies for their help and expertise in 

selection and processing the digital photographs. 

References: 

BRlGGs, J. 1992. Lemna minuta and Azollajiliculoides in canals. BSBI News 60: 20. 

LAST, B. 1990. Lemna minuscula in Wiltshire. BSBI News 56: 9-10. 

OLIVER, J.E. 1991. Spread of Lemna minuscula in Wilts. BSBI News 58: 10.

32 

OUVER, J.E. 1993. Lemna minuta IV: green roots. BSBI News: 64: 30. 

SMITH, J.E. 1990. Surrey Flora Committee Newsletter (Feb) 3. 

JACK OUVER, High View, Rhyls Lane, Lockeridge, Nr Marlborough, Wilts. SN8 4 ED 

Notes and Articles 

CAREX MURICATA SSP. MURICATA IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND 

Carex muricata (Prickly Sedge) is part of the difficult spiked sedge complex and has two subspecies. 

The common ssp. lamprocarpa occurs generally on 'roadsides ,and waste ground, more often on the 

heavier and damper soils, though also found on chalk' (Jermy, Chater & David, 1982). It is 'frequent' 

throughout southern and especially midland England and its distribution has, of course, been recently 

updated (Preston, Pearman & Dines, 2002). The rare ssp. muricata occurs on limestone and was 

thought to be restricted to this substrate and when its distribution was reviewed in the Red Data Book 

(Roberts, 1999) it was known from only 4 localities, having disappeared from Gloucestershire in 1983. 

In 2000 and 2001 it was discovered in two adjoining sites in Shropshire, where it grows, as in the other 

localities, in fairly open limestone grassland. I have seen it at the latter sites, in Yorkshire and in 

North Wales, thanks to the help of Sarah Whild, Mike Porter & Michael Fo1ey and Jean Green respectively, 

and so by 2001 I was fairly familiar with the appearance of the rare subspecies. 

In 2002 I was asked by the Berks., Bucks. & Oxon. Wildlife Trust to produce updated plant lists 

for the two reserves which I manage, Millfield Wood, near High Wycombe (SU89S) and Windsor 

Hill, near Princes Risborough (SP80G). Both these reserves are in Bucks. (v.c. 24), both are on SW 

facing slopes on chalk (though both with an acid top) and both have an area of roughly cleared 

woodland with equally rough grassy patches. In neither reserve had C. muricata ssp. lamprocarpa 

been previously recorded; it is an uncommon plant in S. Bucks. and I know of it from only three sites, 

one in each of 3 different hectads. Richard Fitter had once shown it to me some 600m from the 

reserve at Windsor Hill but this site was destroyed long ago during timber working. 

So it was with some surprise that, early in 2002, I discovered C. muricata at the lower edge of the 

cleared woodland in Millfield Wood. I was even more surprised to find it again a few weeks later, in a 

similar situation, at Windsor Hill and more so, when, looking at the plants carefully they all appeared 

to be ssp. muricata. Specimens were sent to Mike Porter and Michael Fo1ey, both very familiar with 

the subspecies. They in turn showed them to Arthur Chater and Clive Jermy and all four confirmed 

the identification. In 2003 Mike and Michael visited Millfield Wood and several more clumps were 

found, bringing the total to about 10 (and 5 for Windsor Hill). David Pearman was subsequently sent 

specimens and agreed with the identification. The fruiting stems are tall and stiff, just as in the 

northern plants but need to be protected from Muntjac, which, in 2002, ate all the Windsor Hill plants 

and most at Millfield Wood. 

BBOWT's well-known Warburg Reserve is at Bix Bottom, near Henley (SU78D) in Oxfordshire 

(v.c. 23) and is well-studied and well-recorded. In older plant records C. muricata ssp. muricata was 

listed but subsequently removed (no doubt since someone pointed out that this could not possibly be 

correct!). It seemed therefore worthwhile investigating and in July 2003 I visited the reserve. Precise 

localities for C. muricata of either subspecies were vague but the last possible site, the edge of a grassy 

ride, shaded by trees at the edge of woodland on chalk, looked promising. The sedge was here and it 

too proved to be ssp. muricata (confirmed by Mike Porter) albeit rather spindly, due presumably to the 

shading. 

Thus in the past two years Carex muricata ssp. muricata has been found in open woodland on 

chalk in three localities. I can hardly believe that I have found the only sites for it. There must be 

more, and I hope this note will encourage others to go looking for it in 2004 and subsequently. It may 

well be worth looking at areas of recently felled or thinned woodland on chalk and limestone, as in 

several of the known sites there has been a reappearance, or marked increase in abundance, following 

opening up of woodland. It could be that the sites are known but examination has been superficial 

'because it can't be muricata' or even worse, it has been overlooked 'because it's only a sedge'!


My thanks to all those mentioned for steering me to the right places and for identitying specimens. 

Full information on the localities referred to is being collated and a review of the distribution of the 

taxon is in preparation 

References: 

JERMY, A.C., CHATER, A.O. & DAY ID, R.W. 1982. Sedges o/the British Isles. BSBI, London. 

Preston, C.D., PEARMAN, D.A. & DINES, T.D. 2002. New Atlas o/the British & Irish Flora. ODP. 

ROBERTs, FJ. in WIGGINGTON, M.J. British Red Data Books, I, Vascular Plants, 3,d edn. JNCC. 

ALAN SHOWLER, 12 Wedgwood Drive, Hughenden Valley, High Wycombe, Bucks., HP14 4PA 

BOTANY (TALKING FLOWERS) IN LITERATURE 

With the holidays in mind, herewith by way of entertainment, an extract (pp 98-101) from the surreal 

world of Lewis Carroll's (i.e. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson; 1832-98) Through the Looking-Glass and 

What A lice Found There (1872). 

Having declared that she [Alice 1 'should see the garden far better' from 'the top of that hill' and 

having more than once walked towards it (only, because she is in Looking-Glass Land, she is walking 

away from it) and repeatedly ended up at a house instead, she tries once more: 

... This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willowtree 

growing in the middle. 

'0 Tiger-lily,' said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving about gracefully 

in the wind, 'I wish you could talk!' 

'We can talk,' said the Tiger-lily: 'when there's anybody worth talking to.' 

Alice was so astonished that she couldn't speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take 

her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, she spoke 

again, in a timid voice almost in a whisper. 'And can all the flowers talk?' 

'As well as you can,' said the Tiger-lily. 'And a great deal louder.' 

'It isn't manners for us to begin, you know,' said the Rose, 'and 1 really was 

wondering when you'd speak! Said I to myself, "Her face has got some sense in it, 

though it's not a clever one!" Still, you're the right colour, and that goes a long way.' 

'I don't care about the colour,' the Tiger-lily remarked. 'If only her petals curled up a 

little more, she'd be all right.' 

'Alice didn't like being criticised, so she began asking questions: 'Aren't you 

sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?' 

'There's the tree in the middle,' said the Rose. 'What else is it good for?' 

'But what could it do, if any danger came?' Alice asked. 

'It could bark,' said the Rose. 

'It says "Bough-wough!" , cried a Daisy: 'that's why it's branches are called 

boughs!' 

'Didn't you know that?' cried another Daisy, and here they all began shouting 

together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. 'Silence, every one of you!' 

cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to side and trembling with 

excitement. 'They know I can't get at them!' it panted, bending its quivering head 

towards Alice, 'or they wouldn't dare do it!' 

'Never mind!' Alice said in a soothing tone, and stooping down to the daisies, who 

were just beginning again, she whispered, 'If you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick 

you!' 

There was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turned white. 

'That's right!' said the Tiger-lily. 'The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, 

they all begin together, and it's enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!'


'How is it you can all talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better 

temper by a compliment. 'I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers 

could talk.' 

'Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. 'Then you'll know 

why.' 

Alice did so. 'It's very hard,' she said, 'but I don't see what that has to do with it.' 

'In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, 'they make the beds too soft - so that the 

flowers are always asleep.' 

This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it. 'I never 

thought of that before!' she said. 

'It's my opinion you never think at all,' the Rose said in a rather severe tone. 

'I never saw anybody that looked stupider,' a Violet said, so suddenly, that Alice 

quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before. 

'Hold your tongue!' cried the Tiger-lily. 'As if you ever saw anybody! You keep 

your head under the leaves, and snore away there till you know no more what's going 

on in the world, than if you were a bud!' 

'Are there any more people in the garden besides me?' Alice said, not choosing to 

notice the Rose's last remark. 

'There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,' said the 

Rose. 'I wonder how you do it -' ('You're always wondering,' said the Tiger-lily), 'but 

she's more bushy than you are.' 

'Is she like me?' Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed her mind, 'There's 

another little girl in the garden somewhere!' 

'Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,' the Rose said: 'but she's redderand 

her petals are shorter, I think.' 

'Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia,' the Tiger-lily interrupted, 'not 

tumbled about-anyhow, like yours.' 

'But that's not your fault,' the Rose added kindly: 'you're beginning to fade, you 

know - and then one can't help one's petals getting a little untidy.' 

Alice didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, she asked, 'Does she ever 

come out here?' 

'I dare say you'll see her soon,' said the Rose. 'She's one of the thorny kind.' 

'Where does she wear the thorns?' Alice asked with some curiosity. 

'Why, all round her head, of course,' the Rose replied. 'I was wondering you hadn't 

got some too. 1 thought it was the regular rule.' 

'She's coming!' cried the Larkspur. 'I hear her footstep, thump, thump, along the 

gravel-walk! ' 

Alice looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red Queen. 'She's grown a 

good deal!' was her first remark. She had indeed: when Alice first found her in the 

ashes, she had been only three inches high - and here she was, half a head taller than 

Alice herself! 

'It's the fresh air that does it,' said the Rose: 'wonderfully fine air it is, out here.' 

'I think I'll go and meet her,' said Alice, for though the flowers were very interesting, 

she felt that it would be far grander to have a talk with a real Queen. 

'You can't possibly do that,' said the Rose: '/ should advise you to walk the other 

way .. ' 

Reference: 

CARROLL, L. 1995. Alice in Wonderland. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited. 

MARGOT E. SOUCHIER, 26A Dryden Avenue, LONDON, W7 1ES. Email: m.e.souchier@amserve.net

36 Conservation News & Views 

CONSERVATION NEWS & VIEWS 

NEW PLANT STATUS LISTS FOR GREAT BRITAIN 

The Species Status Assessment Project at JNCC is responsible for maintaining and updating Red Data 

Lists, and also the list of 'Species of Conservation Concern'. As a part of this project, the JNCC 

website (http://www.jncc.gov.uklspecies/Plants/default.htm) includes lists of all vascular plants, charophytes, 

bryophytes and lichens for which there is statutory protection or which are considered threatened, 

rare or scarce. The lists of threatened, rare and scarce species have all recently been updated, 

and the lists for vascular plants now take account of the New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora 

(Preston, Pearman & Dines, 2002). 

The IUCN criteria have been used to assess the threat status of species. For vascular plants, the 

result of this was the publication of the Red Data List, included in British Red Data Books 1: Vascular 

plants (3,d Edn., Wigginton, 1999). The ruCN categories currently used for vascular plants are: 

• Extinct (EX) 

• Extinct in the Wild (EW) 

Critically Endangered (CR) 

• Endangered (EN) 

• Vulnerable (VU) 

• Data deficient (DD) 

Those taxa in the categories CR, EN and VU are considered to be threatened. This work has not been 

updated during the recent review, although one species has been removed from the Extinct category 

(Hydrilla verticillata: now Nationally Rare) and several species have been removed because the New 

Atlas has classified them as neophytes. Only those taxa which are classified as 'native', 'native or 

alien', or as 'archaeophyte' are included in the new status lists. Further review of the Red Data List 

may occur following the report of the Vascular Plant Working Group in 2005 (this group is working 

on the list of Species of Conservation Concern rather than the Red Data List, it includes David 

Pearman representing the BSBI and is chaired by Lynne Farrell). In particular, the criteria used for the 

'Near threatened' category will be reviewed, this review has already occurred for lichens (see 

A Conservation Evaluation of British Lichens, Woods & Coppins, 2003). It is also hoped that all 

British taxa will be assessed using IUCN criteria in the near future, currently only rare taxa and a few 

others have been assessed. 

In addition to the threat status, the new lists also show the rarity status. This has been based 

entirely on the data from the New Atlas. Two categories are in use: Nationally Rare (NR) and 

Nationally Scarce (NS). The definition for these categories is currently the following: 

NR Occurring in fewer than 16 hectads in Great Britain and the Isle of Man 

NS Occurring in 16-100 hectads in Great Britain and the Isle of Man 

These definitions are also under review by the Vascular Plant Working Group, and it is likely that they 

will be changed following the report by that group in 2005. In the interim, new lists have been 

prepared from the number ofhectads in the New Atlas in the most recent date class (1987-1999) for all 

mapped taxa classified as 'native', 'native or alien', or as 'archaeophyte'. Only those hectads in which 

the taxon is considered native have been counted for native taxa, for archaeophytes all current records 

have been counted. For those taxa which are considered to be under-recorded in the New Atlas, 

records from all date classes have been included. A few taxa are considered to be so under-recorded 

that they cannot currently be assigned a rarity status, these may well be classified as Data deficient 

when the Red Data Lists are reviewed. Maybe the BSBI could organise some field meetings to try to 

target records for these poorly known taxa?

Conservation News & Views 37 

There are some notable changes compared to the old Nationally Rare and Nationally Scarce lists 

(Nationally Rare was based on the Near threatened as defined in British Red Data Books 1: Vascular 

plants and Nationally Scarce was based on Scarce Plants in Britain, Stewart, Pearman & Preston, 

1994). A number of archaeophytes are included for the first time, these include: Briza minor, 

Camelina sativa, Carum carvi, Chenopodium glaucum, Chenopodium urbicum, Lolium temulentum, 

Mespi/us germanica, Peucedanum ostruthium and Rumex pseudoalpinus. A considerable number of 

subspecies are also included for the first time. 

Acknowledgements 

I would like to thank Simon Leach of English Nature and Deborah Procter of JNCC for their input into 

this review. Other members of the Vascular Plant Working Group have also provided comments. In 

particular I would like to acknowledge the tremendous work of the BSBr in producing the New Atlas, 

without which this review would have been impossible. 

References 

PRESTON, C.D., PEARMAN, D.A. & DINES, T.D. 2002. New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. OUP, 

Oxford. 

STEW ART, A., PEARMAN, D.A. & PRESTON, C.D. 1994. Scarce Plants in Britain. JNCC, Peterborough. 

WIGGINTON, M.J. 1999. British Red Data Books 1: Vascular plants. 3,d Edn. JNCC, Peterborough. 

WOODS, R.G. & COPPINS, B.l 2003. A Conservation Evaluation of British Lichens. British Lichen 

Society, London. 

CHRIS CHEFFINGS, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough, 

PEl lJY. 

Extinct 

Arnoseris minima (Iamb's succory) 

Carex davalliana (Davall's sedge) 

Galeopsis segetum (downy hemp-nettle) 

Holosteum umbellatum Gagged chickweed) 

Neotinea maeulata (dense-flowered orchid) 

Dtanthus maritimus (cottonweed) 

Extinct in the Wild 

Agrostemma githago (corn cockle) 

Bromus interruptus i (interrupted brome) 

Bupleurum rotundifolium (thorow-wax) 

NEW STATUS LISTS 

Pinguicula alpina (alpine butterwort) 

Rubus arcticus (arctic bramble) 

Spiranthes aestivalis (summer lady's-tresses) 

Tephroseris palustris ssp. congestus (marsh fleawort) 

Trichophorum alpinum (cotton deergrass) 

Euphorbia peplis (purple spurge) 

Sagina boydii (Boyd's pearlwort) 

Saxifraga rosacea ssp. rosacea (Irish saxifrage) 

iClassed as a neophyte by the New Atlas, but not currently known from outside the UK. 

Critically Endangered 

Alisma gramineum (ribbon-leaved water-plantain) 

Apium repens (creeping marshwort) 

Atriplex pedunculata (pedunculate sea-purslane) 

Carex depauperata (starved wood-sedge) 

Carex muricata ssp. muricata (prickly sedge) 

Cephalanthera rubra (red helleborine) 

Corrigiola litoralis (strapwort) 

Cypripedium caleeolus (Iady's-slipper) 

Daetylorhiza incarnata ssp. ochroleuca (early 

marsh-orchid) 

Epipogium aphyllum (ghost orchid) 

Filago gallica (narrow-leaved cudweed) 

Galium tricornutum (corn cleavers) 

Gentianella ciliata (fringed gentian) 

Gnaphalium luteoalbum (Jersey cudweed) 

Schoenopleetus triqueter (triangular club-rush) 

Scleranthus perennis ssp. perennis (perennial knawel) 

Senecio paludosus (fen ragwort) 

Sorbus domestica (service-tree) 

Sorbus leptophylla (a whitebeam) 

Sorbus leyana (Ley's whitebeam) 

Sorbus wilmottiana (a whitebeam) 

Valerianella rimosa (broad-fruited cornsalad)

40 

Chenopodium urbicum (upright goosefoot) 

Corynephorus canescens (grey hair-grass) 

Crepis mollis (northern hawk's-beard) 

Cystopteris montana (mountain bladder-fern) 

Dactylorhiza lapponica (Lap land marsh-orchid) 

Dactylorhiza majalis (western marsh-orchid) 

Diphasiastrum complanatum (Issler's c1ubmoss) 

Draba aizoides (yellow whitlowgrass) 

Dryopteris cristata (crested buckler-fern) 

Eleocharis austriaca (northern spike-rush) 

Erica ciliaris (Dorset heath) 

Erica vagans (Cornish heath) 

Eriocaulon aquaticum (pipewort) 

Euphrasia campbelliae (an eyebright) 

Euphrasia heslop-harrisonii (an eyebright) 

Euphrasia marshallii (an eyebright) 

Euphrasia rivularis (an eyebright) 

Galium constrictum (slender marsh-bed straw) 

Galium pumilum (slender bed straw) 

Genista pilosa (hairy greenweed) 

Genista tinctoria ssp. littoralis (dyer's greenweed) 

Gentiana verna (spring gentian) 

Gladiolus illyricus (wild gladiolus) 

Helianthemum apenninum (white rock-rose) 

Herniaria ciliolata (fringed rupturewort) 

Herniaria glabra (smooth rupturewort) 

Hierochloe odorata (holy-grass) 

Hydrilla verticillata (Esthwaite waterweed) 

Hypericum linariifolium (toadflax-leaved 

St John's-wort) 

Illecebrum verticillatum (coral-necklace) 

Isoetes histrix (land quillwort) 

Juncus capitatus (dwarf rush) 

Juniperus communis ssp. hemisphaerica Guniper) 

Kobresia simpliciuscula (false sedge) 

Koeleria vallesiana (Somerset hair-grass) 

Koenigia islandica (Iceland-purslane) 

Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. galeobdolon (yellow 

archangel) 

Limonium bellidifolium (matted sea-lavender) 

Limonium binervosum ssp. anglicum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium binervosum ssp. binervosum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Conservation News & Views 

Limonium binervosum ssp. saxonicum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium britannicum ssp. britannicum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium britannicum ssp. celticum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium britannicum ssp. coombense (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium britannicum ssp. transcanalis (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limonium recurvum ssp. humile (a rock sea-lavender) 

Lithospermum purpureocaeruleum (purple gromwell) 

Lolium temulentum (dame I) 

Ludwigia palustris (Hampshire-purslane) 

Luzula arcuata (curved wood-rush) 

Melampyrum cristatum (crested cow-wheat) 

Mibora minima (early sand-grass) 

Minuartia rubella (mountain sandwort) 

Myosotis alpestris (alpine forget-me-not) 

Ornithopus pinnatus (orange bird's-foot) 

Orobanche reticulata (thistle broomrape) 

Oxytropis halleri (purple oxytropis) 

Peucedanum officinale (hog's fennel) 

Phleum phleoides (purple-stem cat's-tail) 

Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's-ladder) 

Polycarpon tetraphyllum (four-leaved allseed) 

Potamogeton nodosus (Loddon pondweed) 

Potamogeton ruti/us (Shetland pondweed) 

Potentillafruticosa (shrubby cinquefoil) 

Ranunculus flammula ssp. minimus' (lesser spearwort) 

Rumex acetosa ssp. hibernicus' (sorrel) 

Salicornia obscurei' (glaucous glasswort) 

Saxifraga rivularis (highland saxifrage) 

Senecio cambrensis (Welsh groundsel) 

Serapias parviflora (small-flowered tongue-orchid) 

Si/ene otites (Spanish catchfly) 

Sorbus lancastriensis (a whitebeam) 

Stetlaria nemorum ssp. montana' (wood stitchwort) 

Stratiotes aloides (water-soldier) 

Thymus serpyllum (Breckland thyme) 

Trichophorum cespi/osum ssp. cespitosum' 

(deergrass) 

Trinia glauca (honewort) 

Viola rupestris (Teesdale violet) 

Woodsia alpina (alpine woodsia) 

I Included in the New Atlas, but recent research suggests that this is not a subspecies. 

2 In fewer than 16 hectads. if all date classes are included. 

Nationally scarce taxa not in an IUCN category 

Aceras anthropophorum (man orchid) 

Aconitum napellus ssp. napellus (monk's-hood) 

Actaea spicata (baneberry) 

Adiantum capillus-veneris (maidenhair fern) 

Ajuga pyramidalis (pyramidal bugle) 

Alchemilla glaucescens (a lady's-mantle) 

Alchemilla glomerulans (a lady's-mantle) 

Alchemilla wichurae (a lady's-mantle) 

Allium ampeloprasum (wild leek) 

Allium schoenoprasum (chives) 

Alopecurus borealis (alpine foxtail) 

Alopecurus bulbosus (bulbous foxtail) 

Althaea officinalis (marsh-mallow) 

Anagallis arvensis ssp.foemina (blue pimpernel)

Colour Section 

Erigeron borealis at Meall na Samhna, its most 

southerly world location. 

Photo J .A. Edgington © 2003 

Digilalis with aberrant terminal flower, found in a 

London garden. 

Photo J. Moore © 2003 

Pete Selby and friends (L to R Kathryn Hart, Eric Clement, Pete Selby & Debbie Allan) botanising at 

Priddy's Hard, Gosport, shortly before his death. The plant in the foreground is Amaranthus bouchonii. 

Photo J.A. Norton © 2003

2 

Trifolium stellatum flowers and fruit at 

Browndown, Gosport, V.c. 11. 

Photo l.A. Norton © 2002 

Malva alcea x M. moschata in garden, 

Burgess Hill, Sussex. 

Photo B. Radcliffe © 2003 

Colour Section 

Disturbed habitat of Trifolium stellatum with Ulex europaeus 

in background. Photo LA. Norton © 2002 

A wild plant of Praeger's Heath (Erica xstuartii) with 

coloured young shoots, near Roundstone, Connemara, 

Co. Galway. Photo RC. Nelson © 1999


Arabis petraea (northern rock-cress) 

Arctostaphylos alpinus (alpine bearberry) 

Arum italicum ssp. neglectum (Italian lords-and-Iadies) 

Asplenium obovatum (lanceolate spleenwort) 

Asplenium septentrionale (forked spleenwort) 

Athyrium distentifolium (alpine lady-fern) 

Atriplex longipes (long-stalked orache) 

Atriplex praecox (early orache) 

Betula nana (dwarf birch) 

Brassica oleracea (wild cabbage) 

Briza minor (lesser quaking-grass) 

Bromopsis benekenii (lesser hairy-brome) 

Bromus hordeaceus ssp.ferronii (soft-brome) 

Bromus hordeaceus ssp. thominei' (soft-brome) 

Bromus secalinus (rye brome) 

Bupleurum tenuissimum (slender hare's-ear) 

Callitriche truncata (short-leaved water-starwort) 

Calystegia sepium ssp. roseata' (hedge bindweed) 

Camelina sativa (gold-of-pleasure) 

Campanula patula (spreading bellflower) 

Cardamine bulbifera (coralroot) 

Cardamine impatiens (narrow-leaved bitter-cress) 

Carex appropinquata (fibrous tussock-sedge) 

Carex atrata (black alpine-sedge) 

Carex capillaris (hair sedge) 

Carex digitata (fingered sedge) 

Carex divisa (divided sedge) 

Carex elongata (elongated sedge) 

Carex ericetorum (rare spring-sedge) 

Carex humilis ( dwarf sedge) 

Carex magellanica (taB bog-sedge) 

Carex maritima (curved sedge) 

Carex montana (soft-leaved sedge) 

Carex punctata (dotted sedge) 

Carex rupestris (rock sedge) 

Carex saxatilis (russet sedge) 

Carex vaginata (sheathed sedge) 

Carum carvi (caraway) 

Centaurium littorale (seaside centaury) 

Cephalanthera longifolia (sword-leaved helleborine) 

Cerastium alpinum (alpine mouse-ear) 

Cerastium arcticum (arctic mouse-ear) 

Cerastium cerastoides (starwort mouse-ear) 

Cerastium pumilum (dwarf mouse-ear) 

Chenopodium chenopodioides (salt marsh goosefoot) 

Chenopodium glaucum (oak-leaved goosefoot) 

Cicendiafiliformis (yellow centaury) 

Cicuta virosa (cowbane) 

Circaea alpina (alpine enchanter's-nightshade) 

Clinopodium calamintha (lesser calamint) 

Cochlearia micacea' (mountain scurvygrass) 

Coincya monensis ssp. monensis (Isle of Man 

cabbage) 

Corallorhiza trifida (coral root orchid) 

Crassula tillaea (mossy stonecrop) 

Cuscuta europaea (greater dodder) 

Cyperus longus (galingale) 

Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp. coccinea (early 

marsh-orchid) 

Dactylorhiza traunsteineri (narrow-leaved 

marsh-orchid) 

Daphne mezereum (mezereon) 

Daucus carota ssp. gummifer (sea carrot) 

Deschampsia setacea (bog hair-grass) 

Dianthus deltoides (maiden pink) 

Draba muralis (wall whitlowgrass) 

Draba norvegica (rock whitlowgrass) 

Dryas octopetala (mountain avens) 

Dryopteris submontana (rigid buckler-fern) 

Elatine hydropiper (eight-stamened waterwort) 

Epipactis atrorubens (dark-red helleborine) 

Epipactis leptochila (narrow-lipped heBeborine) 

Epipactis phyllanthes (green-flowered helleborine) 

Equisetum pratense (shady horsetail) 

Equisetum variegatum (variegated horsetail) 

Erodium lebelii' (sticky stork's-bill) 

Euphrasia arctica ssp. arctica' (an eyebright) 

Euphrasiafoulaensis (an eyebright) 

Euphrasia ostenfeldii' (an eyebright) 

Euphrasiapseudokerneri (an eyebright) 

Euphrasia rostkoviana ssp. montana' (an eyebright) 

F allopia dumetorum (copse-bindweed) 

Festuca arenaria (rush-leaved fescue) 

Frankenia laevis (sea-heath) 

Fritillaria meleagris (fritillary) 

Fumaria occidentalis (western ramping-fumitory) 

Fumaria parviflora (fine-leaved fumitory) 

Fumaria purpurea (purple ramping-fumitory) 

Fumaria vaillantii (few-flowered fumitory) 

Galeopsis angustifolia (red hemp-nettle) 

Galium parisiense (wall bedstraw) 

Gastridium ventricosum (nit-grass) 

Gaudiniafragilis (French oat-grass) 

Gentianapneumonanthe (marsh gentian) 

Gentianella anglica (early gentian) 

Gentianella germanica (Chiltern gentian) 

Geranium purpureum (little-robin) 

Gnaphalium norvegicum (highland cudweed) 

Gymnocarpium robertianum (limestone oak-fern) 

Helianthemum oelandicum ssp. incanum (hoary 

rock-rose) 

Helleborusfoetidus (stinking hellebore) 

Herminium monorchis (musk orchid) 

Hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn) 

Hordelymus europaeus (wood barley) 

Hordeum marinum (sea barley) 

Hornungia petraea (hutchinsia) 

Hypericum undulatum (wavy St John's-wort) 

lberis amara (candy tuft) 

lmpatiens noli-tangere (touch-me-not balsam) 

lnula crithmoides (golden-samphire) 

lsatis tinctoria (woad) 

Juncus acutus (sharp rush) 

Juncus alpinoarticulatus (alpine rush) 

41

42 

Juncus balticus(Baltic rush) 

Juncus biglumis (two-flowered rush) 

Juncus castaneus (chestnut rush) 

Juncus filiformis(thread rush) 

Lathyrus aphaca(yellow vetchling) 

Lathyrusjaponicus (sea pea) 

Lathyrus palustris (marsh pea) 

Lepidium latifolium (dittander) 

Leucojum aestivum ssp. aestivum (summer snowflake) 

Limonium humile (lax-flowered sea-lavender) 

Limonium procerum ssp. procerum (a rock 

sea-lavender) 

Limosella aquatica (mudwort) 

Linnaea borealis (twinflower) 

Linum perenne (perennial flax) 

Lotus angustissimus (slender bird's-foot-trefoil) 

Lotus subbiflorus (hairy bird's-foot-trefoil) 

Luronium natans (floating water-plantain) 

Lycopodiella inundata (marsh clubmoss) 

Lycopodium annotinum (interrupted clubmoss) 

Lysimachia thyrsiflora (tufted loosestrife) 

Marrubium vulgare (white horehound) 

Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy) 

Medicago minima (bur medick) 

Medicago polymorpha (toothed medick) 

Medicago sativa ssp.falcata (sickle medick) 

Melampyrum sylvaticum (small cow-wheat) 

Melittis melissophyllum (bastard balm) 

Mentha suaveolens (round-leaved mint) 

Mertensia maritima (oysterplant) 

Mespilus germanica (medlar) 

Meum athamanticum (spignel) 

Minuartia hybrida (fine-leaved sandwort) 

Minuartia sedoides (cyphel) 

Minuartia verna (spring sandwort) 

Myosotis stolonifera (pale forget-me-not) 

Nqjasflexilis (slender naiad) 

Nuphar pumila (least water-lily) 

Nymphoides peltata (fringed water-lily) 

Odontites vernus ssp. litoralis' (red bartsia) 

Oenanthe silaifolia (narrow-leaved water-dropwort) 

Ophioglossum azoricum (small adder's-tongue) 

Ophrys sphegodes (early spider-orchid) 

Orchis purpurea (lady orchid) 

Orchis ustulata (burnt orchid) 

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum (spiked star-of-Bethlehem) 

Orobanche alba (thyme broom rape) 

Orobanche rapum-genistae (greater broomrape) 

Parapholis incurva (curved hard-grass) 

Pedicularis sylvatica ssp. hibernica' (Iousewort) 

Persicaria mitis (tasteless water-pepper) 

Peucedanum ostruthium (masterwort) 

Peucedanum palustre (milk-parsley) 

Phleum alpinum (alpine cat's-tail) 

Phyteuma orbiculare (round-headed rampion) 

Pilularia globulifera (pillwort) 

Pinus sylvestris (scots pine) 


Poa alpina (alpine meadow-grass) 

Poa bulbosa (bulbous meadow-grass) 

Poa glauca (glaucous meadow-grass) 

Poa infirma (early meadow-grass) 

Polygonatum odoratum (angular Solomon's-seal) 

Polygonum boreale (northern knotgrass) 

Polypogon monspeliensis (annual beard-grass) 

Potamogeton coloratus (fen pondweed) 

Potamogeton compressus (grass-wrack pondweed) 

Potamogetonfiliformis (slender-leaved pondweed) 

Potentilla crantzii (alpine cinquefoil) 

Potentilla neumanniana (spring cinquefoil) 

Primula elatior (oxlip) 

Primula farinosa (bird' s-eye primrose) 

Primula scotica (Scottish primrose) 

Puccinellia distans ssp. borealis (reflexed 

saltmarsh-grass) 

Puccinelliafasciculata (Borrer's saltmarsh-grass) 

Puccinellia rupestris (stiff saltmarsh-grass) 

Pulmonaria longifolia (narrow-leaved lungwort) 

Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasqueflower) 

Pyrola media (intermediate wintergreen) 

Pyrola rotundifolia ssp. maritima (round-leaved 

wintergreen) 

Pyrola rotundifolia ssp. rotundifolia (round-leaved 

wintergreen) 

Ranunculus flammula ssp. scoticus' (lesser spearwort) 

Ranunculus penicillatus ssp. penicillatus' (stream 

water-crowfoot) 

Rhynchosporafusca (brown beak-sedge) 

Ribes alpinum (mountain currant) 

Ribes spicatum (downy currant) 

Rorippa islandica (northern yellow-cress) 

Rosa agrestis (small-leaved sweet-briar) 

Rumex crispus ssp. uliginosus' (curled dock) 

Rumex pseudoalpinus (monk's-rhubarb) 

Ruppia cirrhosa (spiral tasselweed) 

Sagina saginoides (alpine pearlwort) 

Salicorniafragilis' (yellow glasswort) 

Salicornia nitens' (shiny glasswort) 

Salicornia pusilla' (one-flowered glasswort) 

Salix arbuscula (mountain willow) 

Salix caprea ssp. sphacelata' (goat willow) 

Salix lapponum (downy willow) 

Salix myrsinites (whortle-Ieaved willow) 

Salix reticulata (net-leaved willow) 

Salvia pratensis (meadow c1ary) 

Sarcocornia perennis (perennial glasswort) 

Saxifraga nivalis (alpine saxifrage) 

Scilla autumnalis (autumn squill) 

Scleranthus annuus ssp. polycarpos' (annual knawel) 

Sedum forsterianum (rock stonecrop) 

Sedum villosum (hairy stonecrop) 

Sesleria caerulea (blue moor-grass) 

Sibbaldia procumbens (sibbaldia) 

Sibthorpia europaea (Cornish moneywort) 

Silene conica (sand catchfly)

45 Aliens 

ALIENS 

AKEBIA Qu/NATA (HOUTT.) DECNE. (LARDIZABALACEAE) NEW TO 

WEST KENT AND SPREADING? 

While Local Change recording in West Kent (v.c.l6; TQ46J) on 28 th September 2003, we noticed a 

woody climber on a railway bank. Recognising the plant as something exotic but not having much to 

go on, we took a specimen (Herb. JORlCCO). Eric Clement determined the plant as Akebia quinata 

(Chocolate Vine). This species is native to temperate regions of China, Korea and Japan and is grown 

as an ornamental for its unusual vanilla-scented, although short-lived, flowers. 

We found only one plant, trailing over scrub at the foot ofa railway bank, SE ofChislehurst station 

(TQ434693). Associated species included Humulus lupulus (Hop) and Tamus communis (Black 

Bryony). There were no other obvious garden escapes in the immediate vicinity. The habitat was 

semi-shaded and damp, on a neutral, nutrient-enriched, compact substrate. 

We have identified five other records of A. quinata from the British Isles. The earliest confirmed 

record was from an old railway bridge at Sandling, East Kent (v.c.l5), recorded in 1977 by John 

Palmer (Wild Flower Magazine 382: 23, cited in Clement & Foster 1994, although not mentioned in 

Philp 1982). There is mention of an earlier record from an unspecified locality in 1967, dismissed as 

'of transient worth only' by David McClintock (Wild Flower Magazine 352: 28). There are also 

records from Banstead Downs, Surrey in 1995, from 'Cuddington Way', Surrey in 1998 (probably the 

same locality as the 1995 record) (Rodney Burton pers. comm.). and from Bookham Common, Surrey 

in 1998. At Bookham, a plant of Akebia quinata has escaped from an adjacent garden and 'has rooted 

copiously and is competing successfully with a bramble patch' (Radcliffe & Page 2003). However, 

there has been no write-up or illustration for any of these finds in BSBI News. There are no other Kent 

records (Eric Philp pers. comm.) and EJC is not aware of any other British records. 

The genus Akebia Decne. contains around five taxa, the other frequent garden plants being A. 

trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz. and the hybrid between this and A. quinata, A. x pentaphylla (Mack.) Mack. 

The RHS Plant Finder 2002-3 lists over 30 suppliers of A. quinata, therefore it is a relatively 

well-known garden plant. Its leaflets are 4-7cm long, ± obovate, usually in clusters of five, with 

distinctive retuse apices, cuneate bases and entire margins. There are excellent colour photographs in 

Phillips & Rix (2002) at p.74 and in Phillips & Rix (1989) at p.86. A full botanical description can be 

found in the European Garden Flora at pp.397-398. The sausage-shaped blue-purple pulpy fruits are 

edible but insipid (Mabberley 2002) although it rarely sets fruit in this country (Phillips & Rix 2002). 

A. quinata is 'common' naturalised in eastern North America (PhiIlips & Rix 2002) and, significantly, 

it is referred on the University of Connecticut botanic garden web site with the warning 'do not let this 

plant out of the greenhouse; it is potentially highly invasive'. A. quinata has become a serious 

problem in several eastern states, primarily spreading by vegetative means, aided by humans. 'It 

grows so quickly that it can kill off existing ground level vegetation, understory shrubs and trees, and 

even some canopy trees, by overtopping and smothering them. Once established, its dense growth 

prevents seed germination and seedling establishment of native plants.' (Alien Plant Working Group 

1998). The plant at Bookham, rather ominously, has already started to climb a birch tree (Radcliffe & 

Page 2003) 

It will be interesting to see if this is just a casual record or whether this 'garden romper' (to quote 

EJC) can be found established elsewhere, especially if recent exceptionally warm summers continue. 

References: 

ALIEN PLANT WORKING GROUP. 1998. Fact sheet on A. quinata at: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alienlfact/ 

akqul.htm The Plant Conservation Alliance, Washington, U.S.A. 

CLEMENT, EJ. & FOSTER, M.C. 1994. Alien Plants of the British Isles BSB!, London 

MABBERLEY, DJ. 2002. The Plant-Book C.U.P., Cambridge

Aliens 47 

1cm 

1cm 

E G 

I 

Pratia pedunculata (R.Br.) Benth. del. H. Salzen © 2003

48 Aliens 

DISTINGUISHING LON/CERA N/T/DA AND L P/LEATA 

In my experience it is straightforward to distinguish Lonicera nitida and L. pi/eata in the field (c.j Eric 

Clement's article in BSBI News 94: 34). The leaves of L. nitida are much smaller and spread almost at 

right angles to the stem, while the bigger leaves of L. pi/eata are angled forwards at about 45° degrees 

to the stem (see photo below). The leaf vein character mentioned in Flora Europaea is OK but rather 

unnecessary; the point is that the central vein stands proud of the upper leaf surface in L. pi/eata, but is 

flush with the leaf surface, and relatively indistinct in L. nitida. Close attention to stem hairiness will 

clinch it (see below). The plants that I have measured show a smaller range of leaf sizes than the 

measurements given by Stace (6-16mm and 12-32mm respectively). 

Character Lonicera nitida Lonicera pileata 

Leaflength inc!. petiole l2-l4mm 20-26mm 

Leaf angle to stem c.90' c.45' 

Upper mid vein of leaf flush, indistinct raised, distinct 

Leaf shape pointed egg-shaped more narrowly elliptic 

Stem hairs pale, distinctly of 2 lengths, the brown, all more or less the same 

denser, short hairs patent length, most of them bent forward 

towards the shoot tip 

Non-flowering shoots of Lonicera pi/eata (far left: under-surface; left: upper-surface) and Lonicera 

nitida (right: upper-surface; far right under-surface). 

MICK J. CRAWLEY, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY 

ECH/NOCHLOA CRUS-GALL! AND MAJOR ROADS 

To add another plant to the group associated with (?salted) major roads, has anyone else encountered 

the alien grass Echinochloa crus-galli (Cockspur) in such places? I first noticed it on 2 nd September 

200 I while driving along the M26 east of Maidstone. A little respect for the law and a great deal of it 

for the union of body and soul prevented me from obtaining a specimen for critical identification, so I 

noted it and apart from thinking it was unusual took it no further. On the 8 th September 2002 I was 

driving along the A3 south of the Hog's Back, near Guildford and again noticed strips of E. c-g along 

the central reservation. The law was permissive and the road was quieter so I was able to obtain a 

sample for determination. Again, on the 8 th August 2003 I passed swathes of a grass which appeared 

to be E. c-g along the middle of the M5 not too far north of Exeter. These plants also remained 

unsampled!

Aliens 49 

I had thought that perhaps these were casual occurrences (maybe as a result of a series of accidents 

involving convoys of lorries carrying bird seed) but the A3 colony was present again and thriving on 

the 9 th October 2003. I would be interested to hear if similar colonies exist elsewhere in the country. 

Echinochloa crus-galli is occasionally naturalised in cultivated ground, as stated in Stace's New Flora 

and as observed in maize fields near Pyrford, where cultivation buries the seeds, conferring frost 

protection, but that situation is not comparable with motorways. One could speculate that the species 

is salt-tolerant and that motorway salinity protects it from freezing, but at present it is just speculation. 

Incidentally, in the colonies I have seen the plants seem to be confined entirely to the central 

reservation, although I may be mistaken as it is not easy to botanise thoroughly both sides of the road 

at motorway speeds, especially from the driving seat. 

GEORGE HOUNSOME, 14 St John's Rise, Woking, Surrey GU21 IPW; email:george.hounsome@lineone.net 

IS SALVIA SCLAREA DECLINING? 

Salvia sclarea L. (Clary) has long been cultivated in England as an ornamental and medicinal herb, but 

very much less frequently these days. I have never seen it in gardens in Gosport, so it was a surprise 

hearing that Debbie Allan had found one plant of it at Hardway (S. Hants) in 2003. The large wrinkly 

leaves in a rosette (somewhat Hollyhock-like) had caught her attention on 14 June, and by 27 July 

flowers and fruits were present. It emitted a fruity fragrance detectable from a few feet away, and grew 

beside a rural pathway, but close to gardens. No records appear in The Flora of Hampshire (1996) - 

although IF. Rayner had found it 'abundant' at Hamble Common in 1924. 

Stace's New Flora (ed. 2, 1997, p.578) gives a good description, but provides no figure. Our 

splendid cover illustration by Gaham Easy (GMSE) was completed back in 1977, but due to an 

oversight, was never published. It was drawn from a plant at Thriplow tip (Cambs) found in July 

1974, and it was also at Milton gravel pits during infilling in June 1976. More surprising was GMSE's 

record in June 1998 of it as a crop on the experimental farm at Mepal. 

No other recent records exist in my card index. Is it still well established on old walls, as recorded, 

e.g., at Cliveden (1958), Wateringbury (1978), Sissinghurst Castle (1978) and Oxford (pre-1983)? The 

CD-Rom of the New Atlas (2002) tells us of just seven records during 1987-1999 and thirteen earlier 

ones, dating from 1918. Much earlier records do exist; it was certainly at Arniston, Dalkeith 

(Midlothian) in c.1840 - see BEC Report 4: 426 (1917). 

There was an early reluctance to record garden escapes, especially of attractive ones, and that still 

persists today. 

ERIC J. CLEMENT, 54 Anglesey Road, Gosport, Hants P012 2EQ 

EUONYMUS JAPONICUS - HOW FAST IS IT INCREASING? 

Euonymus japonicus L.f. (Evergreen Spindle) is one of several shrubs vaguely known to the public 

(and even some botanists!) as 'privet' or even 'laurel', a generic term for similar dense shrubs with 

evergreen leaves. British Floras, even up to 1987, simply regarded this species as 'much planted near 

the sea' and did not even put it into their index (Clapham et al., 1987). Yet, Dr D.P. Young regarded it 

as 'naturalised in large quantity' in plantations above the sea-cliffs at Durlstone, Swanage, v.c. 9, June 

1960, BM. 

Our current, weighty New Atlas (2002) gives a surprising 187 records mostly sited near our 

coastline. This plant thrives on sea air and thus makes a useful windbreak or hedge. It spreads easily 

by layering, and can readily root from any broken or cut stems, e.g. hedge trimmings. 

It often sets abundant fruits, but bird-sown seedlings are unusual. J.R. Palmer has found them in 

Kent, at Stone Halt station (1973), Darenth Wood (1973) and Greenhithe (1975), and on a wall at 

Trevarrack (1981) in W. Cornwall. In the Isles of Scilly 'it does not set seed every year and seedlings 

are rare (pers. comm. Clare Harvey, 1978). I have failed to find one anywhere for myself!

50 

A ,J I--------< cm 

C - I , K - N f---i mm 

Euonymusjaponicus L. fil. del. D.P.J. Smith © 2001 

Aliens 

·E

52 Aliens 

PHEDIMUS STOLONIFERUS (SEDUM STOLONIFERUM) NATURALISED IN 

SCOTLAND 

I recently made the exciting discovery of a thriving colony of Phedimus stoloniferus (Sedum stoloniferum 

(Lesser Caucasian-stonecrop)) naturalised in Scotland. I am reasonably confident of the plant's 

identity, as specimens key out unequivocally as this species in Stace (1997). I first discovered the 

colony in 2000 but returned to collect material this year when I noticed that according to the New Atlas 

this species is not recorded at all from Scotland. 

I now have pressed material and a photo of the flowers, and if anyone would like to see these to 

check the identity, please contact me. The site is a damp, south-facing rock face together with some 

loose gravelly substrate below it, in an enclosed miniature Glen below a waterfall in the River Devon, 

which carves a steep sided shady gorge through the lowlands immediately south of the Ochil hills. 

The grid reference is NT004988, at the extreme edge of v.c. 87, near Dollar, between Perth and 

Stirling. The rock face the plants grow on and below is quite high (50m) and might be directly below 

a garden or former garden. There is also some sort of pumping station beside the site, standing on 

ground that may have been artificially constructed to house it. Thus the source of introduction could 

be gravel brought in to build up this base, or from the garden above. I would guess the plants have 

been present for a decade at least. There are twenty separate patches and it looks very at home. The 

only other vaguely unusual alien in the vicinity is a small patch of Saxifraga x urbium (s. umbrosa x 

S. spathularis) (Londonpride) on the other side of the river. 

I'd be interested to know if this species has been recorded from Scotland since the New Atlas was 

produced, or if mine is indeed the first Scottish record. [Yes as far as we can tell- Ed. SSN] 

DR RICHARD MILNE 

SEDUM BREVIFOLlUM - ANOTHER ESCAPE IN SCOTLAND 

In August we took our extended family to Scotland for a caravan holiday. Strangely the part of 

Scotland we visited is further south than where we live in England. The Mull of Galloway is almost as 

far south as Durham City, 50km south of our home in Northumberland. 

Having been born and bred near the foreshore, seaside holidays hold no fascination for me, so as 

the children busied themselves looking for shells or crabs and building sandcastles, I took the 

opportunity to explore Rockcliffe for Sedum anglicum (English Stonecrop) a plant which is not 

particularly hardy for me back home. This plant is commonly found on the Dumfries and Galloway, 

and Cumbrian coastlines. 

Joyce my wife pointed to a granite outcrop and said 'I bet it grows there'. She's becoming too 

clever! I have only ever spotted this species in highly acid places and here it was growing in 

profusion. Green plants in shade were a real contrast to those in full sun. Record temperatures for 

this English summer made most plants a deep wine colour. But alongside it was another acid-loving 

species - an alien! 

Of course I have found these species frequent bedfellows in alpine Portugal on granite tors. 

Though I never did expect to see Sedum brevifolium growing (as it) wild in the UK. 

RAy STEPHENSON 

TRIFOLIUM STELLATUM IN HAMPSHIRE 

In May 1998, Mervyn Southam and I came across some Trifolium stellatum (Starry Clover) growing at 

Browndown, Gosport (South Hants, v.c. 11). I thought this merited a belated mention in BSBI News, 

particularly in view of the opportunity of publishing some colour photographs of this striking plant 

(see colour section plate 2) but also to raise the possibility that the species may be native in the UK.

Aliens 53 

What is now an established colony, occurs as two patches, about ISm apart, on a south-facing, 

moderately steep, consolidated bank of gravel and shingle, next to the sea. At the time of the 

discovery, each of these patches held fewer than 10 flowering plants, but by July 1998 many more 

plants had developed. In early July 2002 several hundred were present covering a combined area of 

more than five square metres, but in June 2003, only small numbers occurred, perhaps because dry 

weather had reduced germination and growth. 

Known also as Star Clover, Trifolium stellatum is an annual plant found throughout the 

Mediterranean in a range of dry, sandy or stony habitats including roadsides and waste ground (Flora 

Europaea & other sources). It is clearly a plant of warm, dry conditions and infertile soils. At 

Browndown, the parts of the bank on which it occurs remain sparsely vegetated, the clover tending to 

dominate the particular areas over which it grows. The same bank, however, also supports a range of 

small herbs and annual grasses, including Lotus corniculatus (Bird's-foot-trefoil), Plantago coronopus 

(Buck's-horn Plantain) and several other Trifolium species. 

The Browndown colony is the second established in the UK; the other being at Shoreham, 

W. Sussex, where the species has remained for nearly 200 years since its discovery in 1804. The plant 

grows in a similar habitat there, on the shingle beach, where it is believed to have originated from the 

ballast of ships returning from the Mediterranean (Coulcher 2001, British Marine Life Study Society 

website). 

The Browndown colony is unlikely to have originated from a deliberate introduction, garden 

escape or casual occurrence. Eric Clement (pers. comm.) told me he has never seen it in cultivation in 

the UK, though I did find it listed in one seed catalogue during a brief search of the internet. 

According to the data presented in the New Atlas (Preston et al. 2002), Trifolium stellatum is 

effectively extinct as a casual, wool alien in the UK. Most of the records were made prior to the 

1930s. 

At the time of the Browndown discovery the then v.c. Recorder, the late Paul Bowman, 

commented (in Wt.) that a garden escape was unlikely and that 'perhaps the seeds had been brought in 

on imported gravel, shingle or on military training vehicles'. The last of these is a distinct possibility, 

since Browndown houses an army training camp. However, this theory can probably be discounted 

because the area where vehicles are used is at least 1 km to the south-east of the colony and prevailing 

south-westerly winds would tend to blow seeds in the wrong direction. In fact, the colony occurs at 

the very western end ofthe Browndown site, and one would expect that the reverse should be true, i.e., 

seeds should be blown from the existing colony and the species should spread to other parts of the site. 

Despite regular searching, however, it has not been found anywhere else over the area, even though 

large expanses of consolidated shingle occur. 

Paul Stanley (pers. comm.) has commented that the species may well be native at both Shoreham 

and Browndown. He has pointed out that the fact that the Browndown colony has not spread is a 

behaviour more characteristic of native species rather than of aliens. He thinks it is possible that the 

plant has originated from long-buried seed and mentioned that he has been finding Trifolium 

glomeratum (Clustered Clover) on the Isle of Wight in sites where it had not been seen for 100 or 150 

years. This is interesting, because T glomeratum was found by myself and Debbie Allan lkm east of 

the T stellatum site in June 2000, and in May 2002, it also appeared up at the top of the same bank 

where the T stellatum grows. T glomeratum was previously reported for the Gosport coast by 

Townsend (1904), so it is at least 100 years since it has been recorded. 

There is a possibility that the bank on which the Trifolium stellatum occurs had been disturbed in 

some way prior to 1998, which would lend support to the buried seed theory. Immediately to the east, 

the bank is covered with Gorse (Ulex europaeus) (see colour section plate 2), so perhaps some of this 

Gorse, along with a layer of shingle, had been removed from the bank prior to the appearance of the 

clover. Debbie Allan (pers. comm.) informs me that a nearby shingle butt was removed at about the 

same time as the discovery, so perhaps equipment or vehicles used for this operation also resulted in 

disturbance or reshaping of the bank on which the Trifolium appeared. 

I am a little sceptical, however, that Trifolium stellatum could ever have escaped notice by 

Townsend and other Hampshire botanists if it had occurred at Browndown in the past. My belief is

54 Aliens 

that it arrived by natural means, either by wind, waves (7) or perhaps by seed-eating birds. Since it is 

virtually unknown in the UK, there must be a strong possibility that seeds came from the Shoreham 

colony. The two sites are separated by 50 miles (80km) of coastline and about the same distance by 

road. 

Human transferral from Shoreham or further afield must also be considered, but I think this is 

unlikely. The fact, as mentioned above, that the Browndown plants have not spread to other parts of 

the site is remarkable, considering that the area is open access and extremely popular with dog 

walkers. If the seeds or fruits were carried around on people's shoes or the feet of dogs, it would be 

appearing in other parts of the site by now and I therefore believe that the possibility of accidental 

human introduction from Shoreham is very remote. 

I cannot really make an informed judgement on whether Trifolium stellatum is native in Britain 

until I investigate the history and ecology of the Shoreham colony, which I have not yet visited, in 

more detail. However, I think the possibility should certainly be considered. I would be interested in 

other people's opinions on this or for any further information. 

It should be mentioned that a number of other Mediterranean species do occur along the south 

coast, including some presumed native and some not. Furthermore, several are currently on the 

increase, probably due to the recent series of mild winters and warm summers. Mediterranean species 

that have recently spread across south Hampshire include Poa inflrma (Early Meadow-grass), 

Hirschfeldia incana (Hoary Mustard), Erodium moschatum (Musk Stork's-bill), Polypogon viridis 

(Water Bent) and Gaudiniafragilis (French Oat-grass). Gaudinia occurs on the beach only lOOm or 

so W of the T. stellatum colony (a single plant found in 2002 by Eric Clement and Debbie Allan and 

still present in 2003). 

One other Mediterranean species worth mentioning is Centaurea calcitrapa (Red Star-thistle). 

This has declined on the south coast where it is 'probably native' (Wiggington 1999, Preston et al. 

2002). Browndown is the site of the last known record in Hampshire for this species in 1984. 

However, this was only a single plant. In fact, the species died out from established sites in the county 

in the 1930s (Brewis et al. 1996). This is a species that could start increasing again. 

References: 

BREWIS, A, BOWMAN, P. & ROSE, F. 1996. The Flora o/Hampshire. Harley Books, Colchester. 

BRITISH MARINE LIFE STUDY SOCIETY website: http://ourworld.compuserve.comlhomepages/BMLSS/starry.htm 

COULCHER, P. 2001. Unto the hills: the history and wildlife o/the South Downs. Book Guild. 

PRESTON, C.D., PEARMAN, D.A & DINES, T.D. eds. 2002. New Atlas o/the British & Irishflora. Oxford 


TOWNSEND, F. 1904. Flora 0/ Hampshire, including the Isle 0/ Wight. 2 nd edn. Lovell Reeve and Co., 

London. 

WIGGINGTON, M.I. ed. 1999. British Red Data Books, 1 vascular plants. 3,d edn. JNCC, Peterborough. 

JOHN A. NORTON, 215 Forton Road, Gosport, P0l2 3HB; email: john-norton@ntlworld.com 

A HYBRID MALLOW WITH GARDEN POTENTIAL 

A hybrid between Malva moschata and M alcea received a brief mention in Clement and Foster 

(1994.) It is possible that this was based on the note by Grabam Easy in BSBI News 23 (1979) in 

which he expressed surprise over atypical characters of herbarium specimens, with the implication of 

hybrid origin. 

For many years I have grown Malva alcea (Greater Musk-mallow) and the white form (alba) of 

Malva moschata (Musk Mallow) in my garden. No hybrids occurred. In 1999 I added the wild pink 

form (M moschata moschata) to my stock. 

I must confess to being a rather untidy gardener, tending to leave self-sown garden subjects where 

they germinate, provided their position is not unduly inconvenient. Such a plant (at first uncritically 

assumed to be Malva alcea) began to appear somewhat unusual in the second half of 2002. It grew 

much taller than usual, reaching a height of 1.6m by midsummer. The fastigiate form of M alcea is

Aliens 55 

usually less than 1.2m, while M mosehata scarcely reaches O.Sm. Flowering commenced in late June 

and continued until the end of December! Not a single seed was produced from the many hundreds of 

blooms, although there had been ample opportunity of fertilisation from plants of the two species in 

the garden. 

The combination of very long flowering period and total absence of seed led me to conclude that 

this must be a hybrid, and further that M mosehata mosehafa was one of the parents. The flowering 

periods of the two species are largely different but there is sufficient overlap to provide the opportunity 

for crossing. In Sussex Malva mosehata begins flowering in the last week of May and ceases in the 

second week of July. M aleea starts in the first week of July and goes on until the end of August. The 

flowers of all three taxa are virtually identical in colour and size, but whereas Malva mosehata and the 

hybrid present a flat face, those of M aleea present a somewhat bowl-shaped outline. All three close 

their flowers at night. Flowers of the hybrid appear singly from an umbel-like cluster, and in 

succession. Shortly after fading the petals fall as a unit. Some time later the capitulum including 

calyx and epicalyx drops off also, leaving a tiny umbel of pedicels on the plant. 

A reliable method of distinguishing between the taxa is by the leaves (see below). Primary and 

basal leaves if present should be discounted because they are prone to great variation in shape and size. 

The lower stem leaves of Malva aleea are shallowly lobed, and the degree of lobing increases only 

gradually up the stem, reaching completion only near the apex. On the stems of both M mosehata and 

the hybrid there is an immediate transfonnation to fully dissected lobing of the leaves over the whole 

of the stem. The latter species and hybrid can be differentiated by the fact that all leaves of 

M mosehata have an additional pair of subsidiary lobes, nowhere present in the hybrid. They are 

noticeably smaller than the other parts of the lamina, and are directed backwards (i.e, in a direction 

opposite to the main trend of the leaf). They are frequently not coplanar with the lamina. 

Middle 

Stem 

Leaves 

Lower 

Stem 

.Leaves 

Ma/va aleea 

50 mm 

I [ I ! 

Maivu lIIosehata Hybrid 

Some minor degree of instability of the hybrid is suggested by the appearance, late in the season, of 

a single shaIlowly lobed leaf in the upper part of the plant, similar to that of Malva aleea. The 

remainder of the leaves, whether in dozens or hundreds are all typical of the hybrid. This has been 

observed on five of the eight hybrids present.

56 Aliens 

It seems probable that the first hybrid plant germinated in 2001; four more in 2002, followed by 

three in 2003. It is not known whether this resulted from a single hybridisation event, with 

intermittent germination over three years, or several events. In the first year, although producing a few 

flowers the plant does not manage a height of more than 0.7m. It achieves its full glory in two years, 

producing stems to 1.6m and hundreds of flowers over a long period (see colour section, plate 2). The 

length of its life is of course at present unknown, but the fact of its total sterility points to the 

probability of a long life. 

The taxa differ also in the three-lobed epicalyx of the flower. In Malva alcea the epicalyx lobes 

are broadly ovate and as long as the calyx lobes. In M moschata the epicalyx lobes are 

linear-lanceolate (i.e. grass-like) and much shorter than the calyx lobes. The epicalyx of the hybrid is 

intermediate, with narrow-ovate lobes slightly shorter than those of the calyx. 

In April 2003 the hybrid originally found was dug out, firstly to separate it from a small rose with 

which it was intimately growing, and secondly to obtain material for propagation. It was assumed that 

removing a 30cm cube of soil would be adequate to extract both plants successfully. It was a great 

surprise to find therefore that the hybrid had formed a large tap root, and this had broken during 

extraction, leaving a substantial portion still in the soil. In shape, size and texture the tap root 

resembled a large parsnip, but with several thick secondary roots radiating horizontally from the axis. 

Two of these rose to ground level and appeared to have taken on the character of rhizomes. Basal 

cuttings, root cuttings and 'rhizome' cuttings were taken to attempt propagation. Another tall hybrid 

plant has appeared at the site, though whether this is re-growth from the residual tap root or from a 

'rhizome' is not known. 

Of the cuttings, no success was obtained from root or 'rhizome' cuttings. All of the basal cuttings 

prospered however, as did side stem cuttings later from other plants, despite initial defoliation 

following snail attack. 

It has not yet been established which species is the female parent of the hybrid and until this is 

known the appropriate sequence of specific epithets cannot be applied to name the hybrid. Samples of 

seed set during the flowering overlap period have been sown in the hope of eliciting an answer. 

However, owing to the inability to segregate plants in the garden the chance of success in this first trial 

is slight. 

Having observed the behaviour of the hybrid for two seasons it seems apparent that the period of 

flowering is likely to be variable, perhaps due to atmospheric conditions and/or degree of exposure to 

sunlight. The first tall plant, in 2002 grew in a position exposed to full sun for about two hours in the 

morning and three hours before sunset. For the remainder of the day it was fully shaded by house or 

trees. 2002 was a year in which sunny days were plentiful, but there was no long period without 

adequate rainfall. Flowering was continuous from late June until the end of December. Another tall 

plant, in the same location in 2003, is still well in flower but appears likely to finish in early 

December. The other tall plant, in a position this year which receives full sun all day has flowered 

well, but has no more flower buds and will finish by the end of October. It is possibly significant that 

this year has seen record amounts of sunshine and prolonged periods of dry weather, verging on 

drought conditions in mid-Sussex. 

Key to distinguish the two species and hybrid 

Lower stem leaves with few shallow lobes, cut 1/3-1/2 way to stalk. 

Epicalyx lobes broad-ovate, equalling calyx lobes 

Lower stem leaves very deeply lobed, almost to stalk 

2 Lower stem leaves with 7 primary lobes (incl. 2 directed backwards) 

Epicalyx lobes linear lanceolate 

Lower stem leaves with 5 primary lobes 

Epicalyx lobes narrow-ovate 

Ma/va a/cea 

2 

Ma/va moschata 

hybrid

Aliens / Notices (BSBI) / Notices (Non-BSBI) 57 

Some gardeners may balk at the prospect of flowers at heights up to 1.6m but it must be pointed out 

that it would combine advantageously with shrubs of a similar height whose flowering would, at best, 

be confined to a few weeks. The hybrid would provide a very long period of colour, in favourable 

circumstances in excess of six months. The colour is not confined to the apex, because many side 

branches flower during the season. In its second year the plant achieves a diameter of about 0.7m. The 

foliage is mid-green and elegantly dissected. It seems inevitable that once the horticultural trade 

become aware of its potential it will appear in many garden centres. 

Re-examination of Graham Easy's note raises the possibility that the plant collected as long ago as 

1828 by Professor J.S. Henslow (Darwin's mentor) was the hybrid, though unrecognised at the time. 

If lower stem leaves survive on the herbarium specimen it would be possible to confirm or refute this 

possibility 

References: 

CLEMENT, E.J. & FOSTER, M.C. 1994. Alien Plants of the British Isles. BSBI. 

EAsy,G.M. 1979. Malva alcea & M moschata in Cambs. BSBI News: 23 

BRYAN RADCLlFFE 14, Manor Close, Burgess Hill, Sussex RH15 ONN 

NOTICES (BSBI) 

PICOS DE EUROPA 

There is one place left on the BSBI trip to the Picos de Europa, May 31 to June 9 2004. If you are 

interested, please contact Lynne Farrell at lynne.farrell@snh.gov.uk or phone 01738-444177 as soon 

as possible for further information. 

NOTICES (NON-BSBI) 

FLORA LOCALE 

Native flora: local projects web pages and database 

Thanks to contributions from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Flora locale 

has recently re-launched its website, which aims to provide a one-stop-shop source of information on 

using and sourcing native flora for projects that have planting with wildlife in mind. 

A new feature of the website is an interactive map of the UK, where you can find out about 

projects happening in regions throughout the British Isles and Ireland. Each case study will have brief 

information about the project, and a link to the project website if there is one. 

Any organisation currently involved in a restoration project, where good practice in sourcing and 

using native flora is being observed, is invited to complete a proforma describing their project. General 

information about broader restoration initiatives across the UK may also be submitted. This 

information will also be used to compile a database about different projects, the types of plants or seed 

used and the habitats involved. 

The completeness of this information resource, which will be available free to anyone visiting the 

website, is ultimately dependent on receiving information about projects. So, if you are involved with 

restoring a heathland using local seed, replanting Water Crowfoot in a chalk stream, harvesting 

meadow seed or creating new native woods through natural regeneration or local seed collections - 

please contact Flora locale now. 

The proforma is available from info@floralocale.org and the address of the web site, which will be 

launched in January 2004 is www.floralocale.org 

SUE EVERETT, Projects Coordinator & Secretary, Flora locale

58 Notices (Non-BSBI) 

PLANT EVOLUTION IN MEDITERANEAN CLIMATE ZONES 

IX'h IOPB Meeting 2004 

16 - 19 May 2004 

Botanical Garden of Valencia University, Spain 

The International Organization of Plant Biosystematics (IOPB) will hold its IX'h Symposium in May 

2004 in Valencia, Spain, under the main Topic Plant Evolution in Mediterranean Climate Zones. The 

Symposium will consist of 10 organised scientific sessions each addressed by an invited speaker. 

Contributions are welcome either as short oral communications or as posters. Two different post 

Symposium excursions are also available. 

For more information please visit the Symposium website: www.jardibotanic.org/iopb.html 

PLANT IDENTIFICATION COURSES 

Rare Plants Group 

Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire 

Again in 2004, the Rare Plants Group of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire is 

running its plant identification courses. These very well-received courses teach the use of plant ID 

keys (mainly in Stace's New Flora of the British Isles) entirely from scratch in a friendly and encouraging 

class with a very high tutor-student ratio. No-one gets left behind and we have enabled all our 

students to make progress whatever their ability or background. 

We start with easier-to-identifY families and deal with more difficult families as the year 

progresses. Students are expected to use hand lenses, binocular microscopes are available and we 

discuss current identification books. 

The course is split into six Saturday-morning indoor sessions from April to September but we will 

expect students to do some work in between sessions; they will be able to bring difficulties to the next 

session. There is also an optional, free, field session. 

We also run advanced courses for our alumni or those with equivalent skills. This year we will be 

doing a two-session course on Willows and Poplars and a one-day field course on chalk grassland 

plants. 

For more details, including dates and costs, email frances.watkins@anthriscus.co.ukorring 01865 

863660. 

WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR IDENTIFICATION 

Perhaps you're one of the many people who find wild flowers beautiful and fascinating, but not easy to 

name. If you've made a first attempt at looking them up in a field guide, you'll know that it's not 

straightforward. The pages seem to be full of similar-looking pictures, and unfamiliar words. Quite 

likely, you couldn't sort out the petioles from the pedicels from the peduncles, and you gave up in 

frustration. 

Sounds familiar? Then this short course is for you! You will learn some of the local flowers, of 

course, but the emphasis will be on the general techniques of accurate identification, rather than trying 

to fill your head with too many species. The key skills are knowing how to look at the plant, and how 

to use the field guide properly. With these fundamentals mastered, you will become confident in using 

a field guide on your own, and can look forward to the satisfaction of finding and identifYing new 

species. 

The Course will be run on three Wednesday evenings at Market Bosworth High School & 

Community College, Leicestershire, 19.30 - 21.30, between May and July 2004, each followed by a 

Saturday afternoon, 14.00 - 17.00 out in the field. Exact dates to be finalised by Christmas 2003. 

The Course tutor is Steve Woodward, an amateur botanist with 25 years experience who has 

contributed to local and national surveys. He has published a book about the plant ecology of

Notices (Non-BSBI) 59 

Swithland Wood and is an active member of Botanical Society of the British Isles and a volunteer 

reserve manager for the local Wildlife Trust. 

For more information please contact: 

STEPHEN WOODWARD, 19 Highfield Road, Groby, Leicester LE6 OGU; tel.: (home), 0116 2871679 

email: grobysteve@aol.com 

TAXONOMISTS 

Your National Focal Point Needs You for Services to Biodiversity Conservation 

Taxonomic expertise is vital for biodiversity conservation. Species cannot be identified, monitoring is 

impossible, and conservation measures are doomed to failure without basic taxonomic information on 

insect, plant and animal species. 

The Global Taxonomy Initiative (GT!) has been set up under the Convention on Biological 

Diversity to ensure that this taxonomic expertise is maintained. This will enable the UK to conserve its 

own biodiversity and use its expertise and collections to help other countries conserve their 

biodiversity 

The Natural History Museum is the UK's National Focal Point for the GT! and is compiling a 

register of UK taxonomists. This register will serve as a repository of information on practising 

taxonomists in the UK and will be used to assess the UK's taxonomic capabilities, and match these to 

the biodiversity conservation needs of the UK and other countries. 

IF YOU ARE A TAXONOMIST, WE NEED YOUl 

PLEASE CONTACT THE NATIONAL FOCAL POINT OFFICER, Alistair Taylor, 

SO THAT YOU CAN BE INCLUDED IN THE REGISTER 

biodiversity@nhm.ac.uk 

Tel: 02079425372 

Fax: 02079425841 

AUSTAIR TAYLOR, Biodiversity Liaison Officer, National Focal Point for the Global Taxonomy Initiative, 

Research and Consulting Office, Science Directorate, Natural History Museum, Cromwell 

Road, London SW7 5BD 

HEMIPARASITES SYMPOSIUM 15-16 APRIL 2004 

1st International symposium on the biology ofhemiparasitic Scrophulariaceae? 

Wageningen, 15-16 April 2004 

Hemiparasitic Scrophulariaceae form a special group of plants. Many people study the weedy taxa 

(Striga, Orobanche) and regularly meet, but fewer scientists, sometimes in a fairly isolated position, 

work with the, often endangered, non-weedy genera. Therefore, it was decided to organise a workshop 

Ismall symposium, to meet and discuss the 'state of the art', and define open questions with respect to 

the biology of the non-weedy hemiparasitic Scrophs. 

We hope that the attendance will include both settled scientists as well as starting PhD's, and 

anybody in between. This would offer chances for a wide exchange of experiences and discussion of 

problems, a,s well as transfer of information between generations. We are trying to keep costs as low 

as possible, and are searching for funds. 

The meeting will be held in Wageningen (The Netherlands), Thursday-Friday, 15-16 April 2004, 

just after Easter. We plan to have proceedings published as a special issue ofa refereed journal. 

Full information can be found on the web: www.hemiparasites.nl

60 Notices (Non-BSBI) 

The organisers: Siny ter Borg (Wageningen University, NL); Renate Wesselingh (Universite catholique 

de Louvain, B); Manja Kwak (University of Groningen, NL); Jan van Groenendael (University 

ofNijmegen, NL); Juul Limpens (Wageningen University, NL); Jelle Ferwerda, (Bio-Vision, 

Enschede, NL) (webmaster); Ben Post, (Organisation BureauPost, Doorwerth, NL) (registration, 

finances etc.) 

INSECT-PLANT INTERACTIONS: FROM PARASITISM TO MUTUALISM 

9 March 2004 17.30 

Associations between insects and plants are remarkably diverse, ranging from antagonism to mutualism. 

This meeting aims to bring together research on insect-plant interactions, with an emphasis on 

the importance of having robust phylogenies for both insects and plants to understand the patterns and 

processes that have generated the current diversity of plant-insect associations. The talks will take us 

on a tour of plant-insect interactions research, from highly co-evolved systems, such as the fascinating 

fig-fig wasp systems, to the highly specialized leaf-mining moths and gall wasps. 

Organised by Dr Carlos Lopez Vaamonde, Institute of Zoology, ZSL 

EXPLAINING SPECIES ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS: BIODIVERSITY 

OVERTIME 

8 June 200417.30 

The relative abundance of species in ecological assemblages is a topic that has intrigued biologists for 

decades. Why, for example, do communities contain many more rare than common species? This 

meeting reveals how a better understanding of changes in community composition and structure over 

time can help elucidate empirical patterns of abundance, improve methods of biodiversity and inform 

conservation policy. 

Organised by Professor Anne Magurran, Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews 

All lectures take place in the Meeting Rooms, The Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, 

London 

Admission to Scientific Meetings is FREE 

PETER FAY, Hon. Assistant Secretary, the Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London 

NW14RY 

WORLD WETLANDS DAY CONFERENCE 2004 

Wetlands: Policy into Action 

2 nd & 3rd February, 2004 

School of Oriental & African Studies, RusselI Square, London 

World Wetlands Day (WWD) marks the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 nd February 1971, 

in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Ramsar Convention was a maj or 

milestone in the recognition of the importance of wetlands both to society and biodiversity. The 

challenges we face today are no less real than when the convention was signed in 1971. WWD was 

celebrated for the first time in 1997. Each year, government agencies, non-governmental 

organisations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of WWD to 

undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the 

Ramsar Convention in particular. This will be the third WWD conference in the UK and is building 

on the experience we have developed so far.

Notices (Non-BSB!) I Requests 61 

Aims and Objectives of this conference 

The aim of the conference is to bring together all the key organisations in the UK involved in wetIands 

issues to share knowledge, discuss innovative techniques, network, consider good practice case studies 

and promote business and wetland biodiversity. During the WWD 2003 conference we canvassed 

delegates for ideas on what they saw as the function of the conference. Not surprisingly this resulted 

in a mix of differing objectives. We have worked these into this year's programme with a view to 

helping structure the way we approach the conference and take forward important themes. The objectives 

of the WWD 2004 conference are to: 

Understand the state ofwetIands in order to identify where progress needs to be made 

Explore how major policy initiatives and investment programmes should be developed to benefit 

wetland habitats 

Share plans on how the World WetIands Day could be broadened and developed to promote 

wetlands on a much larger scale than at present - we will be seeking you help in developing this 

programme 

Develop an understanding of how best practice can help resolve key issues in practice in order to 

help take forward key themes such as partnership, the role of project officers etc. 

Promote the RSPB/CIWEM Living Wetlands Award and to promote the importance of an international 

view ofwetlands 

Produce a CD of the event in order to structure the way wetland issues from the event are communicated 

and put into practice, and developed with a sense of continuity. 

The meeting will be chaired by Dr Peter Spillett, Thames Water, Geoff Bateman OBE, Environment 

Agency and Dr Chris Spray Northumbrian Water. 

Further details from Bob Earll: Phone/Fax 01531 890415 Joining details - maps, directions and hotels 

- and programme are on the CMS website: www.coastms.co.uk or Email bob.earll@coastms.co.uk 

REQUESTS 

BOTANICAL ENGLISH EDITOR REQUIRED FOR WILLOWS OF THE 

URALS 

We have recently completed the text for a book on the Willows of the Urals, Russia, after five years of 

study. The book includes an introduction, keys, descriptions of 35 species (many of which occur in 

Britain), one or two photographs of each species, illustrations, distribution maps and an index in Latin, 

Russian and English. It will be about 260 pages in total. 

The book is being translated into English by a non-botanist, but about 80 pages of text requires 

editing into proper botanical English (including the descriptions) for publication in June 2004. If 

anyone is able to help, would they please contact me at the address below. We may be able to provide 

some limited funding. 

SVIATLANA TRYBUSH, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ; Tel.: 01582-763133 

ext. 2191. Email: sviatIana.trybush@bbsrc.ac.uk 

PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRITISH PLANTS 

Hopefully, many of you will have seen my website devoted to the identification of the British flora. 

You can find it at www.reticule.co.uk. It has proved popular and it receives well over 1500 visits per 

week. The website contains information and illustrations of 2020 native and naturalised species. The 

illustrations are a mixture of drawings, scanned prints, digital photographs and direct scans of leaves. 

Many people have contributed pictures and now about 60% are illustrated in some form or another.

64 Offers / Book Notes 

Trifolium incarnatum ssp. molinerii 

Trifolium strictum 

Trinia glauca 

Tuberaria guttata 

Veronica spicata ssp. hybrida 

ANDREW SHAW, Gofynne, Llanynis, Builth Wells, Powys. LD2 3HN; andrewgshaw@hotmail.com 

BOOK NOTES 

Those that will not be reviewed in Watsonia are marked with an asterisk (*). Unattributed comments 

in square brackets are mine. 

Botaniska strovtag. Svenska och engelska. (Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi LXXXII). M 

Ryden. Pp. 182.2003. Softback. 190 kr. ISSN 0065-0897. ISBN 91-85352-51-9. 

The Isle of Wight Flora. C. Pope, L.Snow & D. Allen. Pp. 255. The Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 

Dorset. 2003. Hardback. £35. ISBN 1 904349285. 

*Plant Conservation in Scotland - Articles deriving from the BSS Symposium, Edinburgh, 2002. 

BSS Issue 55.1. Price £16 (special offer). 

[20 papers covering all plant groups and many habitats, many presented by BSBI members.] 

*The Natural History of Upper Teesdale. M.E. Bradshaw (ed.). Pp. 104. Durham Wildlife Trust. 

2003. Price £5 (no ISBN). 

[A 4th edn of the original 1965 booklet. Some chapters are unchanged, but others are completely 

new (at least since my 2 nd edn.).] 

*Review of non-native species policy - the DEFRA report is available on the web at: 

www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/resproglfindings/non-native/index.htm 

* Fritillary - the journal of the Ashmolean NHS of Oxfordshire and the Berkshire, Bucks & Oxfordshire 

Wildlife Trust. Available (at £6.00 for No. 2 & £6.50 for No. 3 from ANHSO Fritillary, & 

Eynsham Road, Botley, Oxford, OX2 9BS. 

[Copies of Numbers 2 & 3 have been passed to me. No. 2 contains articles on The flora of the 

Oxford Ring Road, Dandelions, the native Grape Hyacinth, farmland flowers (arable weeds!) - 

the last two particularly interesting. No. 3 has 9 articles on the Ecosystems of Oxfordshire valleyhead 

fens, includeing Cothill Fen, which I found extremely informative.] 

Vice-County Census Catalogue of the Vacular Plants of Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the 

Channel Islands. Stace, C.A., Ellis, R.G., Kent, D.H., McCosh, DJ., eds. Pp. xxi+405. BSBI. 

2003. Price (sbk) £12. ISBN 0 901158 30 5. 

*Nature in Cambridgeshire, No. 45. 2000. 88pp. ISSN 0466 6046. Available from the Herbarium, 

Dept. of Plant Sciences, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA for £3.50 (incl. p&p) who also 

have copies of many back issues. 

[I have subscribed to this for the last 8 years and always found something of interest in this welledited 

and very modestly-priced journal. This issue contains a long article on one of the Oxlip 

Woods, Kingston Wood, interesting records on the rich flora of the ditches of the Ouse Washes, as 

well as half-a-dozen other articles and the usual plant records and book reviews.] 

DAVID PEARMAN, Algiers, Feock, Truro, Cornwall TR3 6RA; Tel: 01872 863388 

SUPPLEMENT TO ALIEN GRASSES OF THE BRITISH ISLES 

Supplement to Alien Grasses of the British Isles T.B. Ryves and E.J. Clement. Pp. 4. 2003. Available, 

free of charge, from Summerfield Books - A5 s.a.e. required. 

[This short supplement contains new taxa and references, and notes and corrections.] 

CI'IRIS BOON, Secretary Publications Committee

66 Book Notes I Obituary Notes 

'DATING ONE'S BENTHAM' REPRIEVED 

My co-authors, David Allen, Philip Oswald and Mike Walpole, and I were delighted by the response 

from BSBI members to our note in the April News (pp.68-69) asking for help in tracing editions and 

(re-)issues of George Bentham's Handbook of the British flora. Indeed, although the same note was 

published in other places, only BSBI members responded! I will only mention one of the people who 

replied, the ever-helpful and surely very much missed Nora McMillan. 

Information BSBI members provided helped US to clarify the sequence of editions and issues. 

However the following remain elusive: 1880 and 1881 probable re-issues of the fourth edition (which 

were cited by F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan in Taxonomic literature edn 2), and an 1897 re-issue of the 

sixth edition which N.D. Simpson listed in his 1960 A bibliographic index of the British flora. 

Simpson apparently saw this but we have not traced any copy. It is just possible, I think, that these 

were misprints or mistakes of some other kind. 

The results of our delvings are published in a Short Note - 'George Bentham's Handbook of the 

British flora (1858-1954) and associated works: a check-list of editions and issues' - in Archives of 

natural history 30(2): 250-254 (October 2003). 

Those who have Internet access are very welcome to download, for their personal use, a PDF file 

containing this paper from the Society for the History of Natural History's website; the URL is: 

http://www.shnh.org/PUB_ANH_Bentham.pdf 

It is clear from those who replied that owning a copy of Bentham's Handbook is still very much 

part of our botanical tradition. Something we might celebrate on its sesquicentenary in 2008? 

E. CHARLES NELSON, Tippitiwitchet Cottage, Hall Road, Outwell, Wisbech, PE14 8PE; 

email: editor@shnh.org 

OBITUARY NOTES 

With much regret we report the following deaths. 

Dr F.H. Perring OBE, FLS of Oundle, Peterborough. On 24 October a large crowd of over two 

hundred, including many BSBI members, assembled at Stoke Doyle parish church in rural Northamptonshire 

for a service of thanksgiving for the life of Franklyn Perring. The herb-rich turf ofthe churchyard 

reminded US of one of his great enthusiasms. Sunlight streamed through the clear windows. 

Readings included poems by John Clare, A.E. Housman, Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke, John Gilmour 

and Trevor Hold, and among the tributes was this personal reminiscence by Max Waiters, perhaps his 

longest and closest colleague in the BSBI: 

'I have a few minutes this morning to try to tell you of my personal friendship with Frank Perring (I 

always called him Frank) - a friendship over some 60 years in fact. I do not recall our first meeting. 

Frank was among a small group of gifted, enthusiastic students which it was my good fortune to try to 

teach in the heady period in Cambridge University following the end of World War n. He had done his 

compulsory military service in the Army in Ireland, India and Malaya before coming up to Queens'College 

to read Natural Sciences. I joined the teaching staff of the then Botany School (now the Plant 

Sciences Dept.) as Curator of the Herbarium in 1948, and Frank was one of the really keen students who 

came on the first Continental European excursion I ran, which took place in Sweden in 1950. 

It was, of course, the Botanical Society's Maps Scheme which really cemented our lifelong 

friendship. I remember how pleased I felt when, as newly-appointed part-time Director of the project, 

I discovered that Frank would welcome the full-time post as 'Senior Worker' for the Atlas preparation, 

which he began in 1954 after completing his PhD. He subsequently took over from me as Director, 

and the Atlas appeared as our joint work in 1962. 

It was a pleasure to work with Frank: he was cheerful and optimistic - even when, as happened 

early in recruitment of volunteer field recorders, a single morning's mail, after some national press 

publicity, brought a flood of more than 800 letters, which threatened to engulf our small but devoted

Reports of Field Meetings 69 

REPORTS OF FIELD MEETINGS - 2003 

Reports of Field Meetings (with the exception of Reports of Irish Meetings written by Alan Hill) are 

edited by, and should be sent to: Dr Alan Showier, 12 Wedgwood Drive, Hughenden Valley, High 

Wycombe, Bucks, HPI4 4PA, Tel.: 01494 562082. Potential authors of reports should note that they 

should not be much longer than 500 words (half a page of News) for a one day meeting and 1000 

words (I page of News) for a weekend. 

CASTELL DINAS BRAN, LLANGOLLEN, DENBIGHSHlRE (v.c. 50) 3,d May 

Ten people met at Dinas Bran School on an overcast morning, threatening rain, coming from far and 

near and arriving via a variety of transport. A singing Blackcap welcomed the group on the start of the 

walk. Through the lanes we skirted the ruins of the 12th century castle, enjoying the spring flowers: 

Conopodium majus (Pignut), Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone), Mercurialis perennis (Dog's 

Mercury), Ranunculus auricomus (Goldilocks Buttercup), Stellaria holostea (Greater Stitchwort) and 

the delicate grass Melica uniflora (Wood Melick). A specimen of Poa angustifolia (Narrow-leaved 

Meadow-grass) was collected and later confirmed by Arthur Copping. Ranunculus ficaria (Lesser 

Celandine) in the hedgerow on closer inspection appeared to have a brown rust on its leaves. On 

roadside verges we found Allium vineale (Wild Onion), Sedum telephium (Orpine), Valerianella sp. (a 

cornsalad) and Fumaria sp. (a fumitory). 

At lunch time it rained heavily and after considering some smelly barns for shelter we all huddled 

under a tree with Viola odorata (Sweet Violet) beneath our feet. When we were all thoroughly soaked 

we set off again on a path along a small bank in a field grazed by sheep. Suddenly Martin Rand fell to 

his knees and began inspecting the short turf closely. To everyone's astonishment he found Moenchia 

erecta (Upright Chickweed) - it was just past flowering. This find cheered everyone up and we all 

started crawling around on our hands and knees, discovering Ornithopus perpusillus (Bird's-foot), 

Aira praecox (Early Hair-grass) Erodium cicutarium (Common Stork's-bill), Myosotis discolor 

(Changing Forget-me-not) and Aphanes arvensis (Parsley-piert) also on the bank. 

We continued along the hedgerow and Graham noticed a hybrid Crataegus (hawthorn) with some 

flowers in the same panicle containing one style and others two. While Graham searched the hedgerow 

the rest of the group splashed about in a small wet flush with Juncus effusus (Soft-rush), Ranunculus 

fiammula (Lesser Spearwort), Cardamine pratensis (Cuckooflower), C. flexuosa (Wavy Bitter-cress) 

(all in flower), Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime) and Anagallis tenella (Bog Pimpernel). Large Alder 

trees (Alnus glutinosa) were admired before we joined the road again. Martin found Stellaria neglecta 

(Greater Chickweed); Lathyrus linifolius (Bitter Vetch) was just starting to flower and the fronds of 

Pteridium aquilinum (Bracken) were sprouting up through the ground. 

We scrambled over the Eglwyseg limestone scree until we found Hornungia petraea (Hutchinsia), 

Erophila verna (Common Whitlowgrass), E. majuscula (Hairy Whitlowgrass), Medicago lupulina 

(Black Medick), Carex caryophyllea (Spring Sedge) and Catapodium rigidum (Fern-grass). In a little 

lay-by on the Eglwseg road Wendy McCarthy and Graham refound Filago minima (Small Cudweed). 

We then crossed the fields and a little footbridge into an ancient woodland with a carpet of 

Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Bluebell) and some Melampyrum pratense (Common Cow-wheat) just 

starting to flower. While walking through the wood we heard a Pied Flycatcher singing on an oak 

branch. 

My thanks to all those who came along to help make this a very enjoyable meeting and in finding 

over 100 speCies. 

EMILY MEILLEUR

70 Reports of Field Meetings 

MURLOUGH, Co. DOWN (v.c. H38) 18 th May 

Murlough is a National Nature Reserve that is managed by the National Trust and comprises about 

280ha of mature stable dunes with heath and scrub. Seven members met on a bright but cool moming 

and made their way, with permission, onto the restricted part of the Reserve where the public are not 

normally allowed. 

The ground is gently undulating and is mostly dominated by Festuca rubra (Red Fescue) and 

AmmophUa arenaria (Marram), with Calluna vulgaris (Heather) and Erica cinerea (Bell Heather). 

There are also extensive areas of Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Bluebell) and small groups and single 

specimens of Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore), Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn) and Sambucus nigra 

(Elder). At the top of one particular rise, we found ourselves looking down the very steep slope of a 

deep blow-out. The upper slopes of this provided Aira praecox (Early Hair-grass), Cerastium diffusum 

(Sea Mouse-ear) and Ononis repens (Common Restharrow). The middle part of the slope was too 

steep to traverse with safety and without significant damage to the dune, so we made our way around 

the steepest slope, down into the blow-out. Here, about a quarter of the bottom of the blowout was 

covered by a dense group of A. pseudoplatanus with some ferns, Dryopteris jilix-mas (Male-fern) and 

D. dilatata (Broad Buckler-fern). On the large area of exposed sand were Erodium cicutarium 

(Common Stork's-bill), Filago minima (Small Cudweed), Myosotis ramosissima (Early Forget-menot) 

and Teesdalia nudicaulis (Shepherd's Cress). Moving from the blow-out towards the sea, 

Euphorbia paralias (Sea Spurge) and E. portlandica (Portland Spurge) were frequent amongst 

Ammophila arenaria. While returning to the cars for lunch, we noticed a small herd of the ponies used 

by the National Trust to help manage the reserve. 

After lunch, the public boardwalk to the sea was used and several additions were made to our list. 

Most remarkable was Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort), of which there were four fronds. We also saw 

Thalictrum minus (Lesser Meadow-rue) and more Teesdalia nudicaulis. There were several plants of 

Cotoneaster simonsii (Himalayan Cotoneaster) and stands of Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea-buckthorn). 

The latter plant was first introduced into Northern Ireland at Murlough and now forms large stands on 

some parts of the coast where it has completely displaced native plants. Recording continued as we 

made our way around the Reserve, and we ended the day with a good list of Murlough specialities and 

the 'usuals'. 

One of the objectives of this meeting was to relocate Vicia lathyroides (Spring Vetch) at 

Murlough, and this we failed to do. It had last been recorded at stations within Murlough about 10 

years ago. The ground was extensively searched and all likely plants carefully checked and found to 

be Vicia sativa (Common Vetch). 

GRAHAM DAY 

USKMOUTH WETLANDS RESERVE (v.c. 35) 5 th July 

13 people met Trevor Evans, the leader, at the car park of the above reserve at 11.00. The banks of a 

lagoon nearby were searched for Ophrys apifera (Bee Orchid) without avail, nothing of the 50+ there 

on 23,d June could be found. Anacamptis pyramidalis (Pyramidal Orchid) had fared better and a 

number of them were counted. The Dactylorhiza praetermissa (Southern Marsh-orchid) occurred in 

small numbers but were past their best. Some Lathyrus nissolia (Grass Vetchling) was noted here and 

was seen scattered over the reserve. Many common plants were named as some of the party had 

limited knowledge. Various common docks had their distinguishing features pointed out but like so 

many other closely related plants one learns the common ones, then when others are met that have 

some similar features, but unfamiliar characteristics as well, one is better prepared to add a new plant 

to one's memory. The track round the car park had several Puccinellia distans (Reflexed Saltmarshgrass) 

plants on it. Moving to the west a single Bee Orchid was found on a grassy strip where more 

Southern Marsh-orchids were past their best. The cocoon of Zygaena jilipendulae (Six-spot Bumet) 

was stuck to the top of a stem nearby.


The path wound round past the gatehouse to the Power Station and Lathyrus sylvestris 

(Narrow-leaved Everlasting-pea) and Lepidium latifolium (Dittander) lined it. Even more of the latter 

covered the banks of the lagoons. More and better clusters of Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) 

began to appear and digital camera owners benefited in that they could delete the first efforts as they 

found bigger and better clusters. A large triangular rough grassland should have had a display of 

peculiar very pale brown bee orchids, with pale pink sepals but like the others they 'had done their 

thing'. An area of Trifolium squamosum (Sea Clover) was viewed instead, drifts of which were later 

to be seen near the lagoon to the east of the lighthouse. A few metres more and on a bare gritty patch 

were 15 plants of Samolus valerandi (Brookweed) an uncommon v.c. plant and the first seen by the 

leader this year (later, two more were seen by the end of a lagoon). Chenopodium glaucum 

(Oak-leaved Goosefoot) normally 20cm or more high was only one tenth of that in the dry hollow 

where normally some water remained. Vicia hirsuta (Hairy Tare) and V. tetrasperma (Smooth Tare) 

had been seen and compared, as we moved towards the R. Severn shore and our lunch. Before that, a 

search was made to find the lopsided cones of Pinus radiata (Monterey Pine). These cones remain on 

the branches for the life of the tree and in California the heat of a forest fire is needed before the cones 

open to allow the seeds to fall, germinate and replace the destroyed parent. Needles in threes were 

noted. The morning walk ended overlooking a promontory at the mouth of the R. Usk. A forest of 

Heracleum mantegazzianum (Giant Hogweed) covered this mound and contrasted with the sprayed 

and collapsed yellowing plants inside the reserve. Lunch was taken overlooking the estuary but the 

overcast skies and cool breezes kept the normally numerous flying insects skulking in the vegetation. 

Hirschfeldia incana (Hoary Mustard) was dotted along the track to the lighthouse, displaying its 

greyish green foliage, pale yellow flowers and siliquas , many of which ended in 'a minaret'. Several 

Raphanus raphanistrum ssp. maritimus (Sea Radish) poked through the fence and showed their fattish 

pods constricted between their seeds. It was the large number of patches of Lathyrus sylvestris at the 

side of the tracks by the lagoons that attracted most attention. E of the lighthouse Apium graveolens 

(Wild Celery) was observed, its odour confirming it. The E end of a lagoon was sampled for 

Myriophyllum spicatum (Spiked Water-milfoil), Zannichellia palustris (Homed Pondweed), 

Ceratophyllum demersum (Rigid Hornwort) and a Chara sp. (Stonewort). Making our way to 

overlook the vegetated foreshore we came to an area of low vegetation with Salicornia ramosissima 

(Purple Glasswort) dominating, then an almost dry, very shallow pool supporting scattered Veronica 

scutellata (Marsh Speedwell) and finally an area of large patches of hundreds of Dactylorhiza 

praetermissa. From the top of the low cliffs here large patches of blue indicated the presence of 

Limonium vulgare (Common Sea-lavender) growing among the usual littoral plants of a muddy 

estuary. Before arriving back at the cars a stop was made to examine some Sison amomum (Stone 

Parsley) a common feature of lane sides near the R. Severn. 

Footnote: The plantain Tony Lewis thought might be Plantago major ssp. intermedia turned out to be 

the commoner ssp. major, none of its capsules had more than 12 seeds in them, some should have at 

least 14 seeds to be ssp. intermedia. 

TREvOR EVANS 

LOCKERBIE.DuMFRJESSHJRE (v.c. 72) 18'h_20'h July 

Seven people took part in the field meeting over a weekend of changeable weather. The objective for 

the three days was to visit tetrads in eastern Dumfriesshire as part of the local change project. 

First stop Friday morning was Lochmaben (NY08W) the birth place of Robert the Bruce. This is 

probably the most complex of all the tetrads to be covered in v.c. 72 and at 273 species was the richest 

in 1987/88. The tetrad includes much of the town itself, parts of two of the town's seven lochs and part 

of the river Annan. On the Castle Loch, there was a good range of aquatic and reed swamp species 

including Cicuta virosa (Cowbane), Oenanthe crocata (Hemlock Water-dropwort), Iris pseudacorus 

(Yellow Iris), Glyceria maxima (Reed Sweet-grass), Lythrum salicaria (Purple- loosestrife) and 

Phragmites australis (Common Reed). On the outlet to the Mill Loch was a raft of Nymphoides peltata


(Fringed Water-lily), apparently introduced since the last survey and now threatening to spread over 

much of the loch. An elderly lady on enquiring what we were doing pointed out the location of a 'rare' 

flower drawn to her attention by the late Mary Martin, previous v.c. recorder. Mary had lived for many 

years in Lochmaben and had led botanical evening classes at which this lady had been shown this plant. 

We wouldn't otherwise have seen Lamium maculatum (Spotted Dead-nettle) which was hidden under a 

hedge. The group who explored the area towards the river had a narrow escape from an aggressive 

horse, which prevented closer inspection of an old river meander. 

In the afternoon we visited the Tinwald tetrad (NY08A) on the face of it a habitat poor square of 

arable and improved grassland on the Torthorwald Ridge. Some interesting habitat was found 

however, grassy banks produced Hypericum x desetangsii (Des Etangs' St 10hn's-wort), Hypericum 

humifUsum (Trailing St 10hn's-wort), Sedum telephium (Orpine), Trifolium medium (Zigzag Clover) 

and in bare places clumps of Senecio viscosus (Sticky Groundsel). Near the Lochar Water there was 

an area of wet acid grassland with Molinia caerulea (Purple Moor-grass), Potentilla palustris (Marsh 

Cinquefoil), Senecio aquaticus (Marsh Ragwort), Viola palustris (Marsh Violet) and Veronica 

scutellata (Marsh Speedwell). After a walk negotiating a wandering bull, Shaws Hill offered fine 

views over Dumfries to the Solway. A small lochan had Carex roslrata (Bottle Sedge), Lycopus 

europaeus (Gypsywort) and Lychnis flos-cuculi (Ragged-Robin). Small streams produced Glyceria 

notata (Plicate Sweet-grass) and Ranunculus hederaceus (Ivy-leaved Crowfoot). 

On the Saturday the group met at Bigholms farm (tetrad NY38A) and divided attention between 

the Bigholms burn, adjacent lowland mire and the moorland to the south of the road. The burn and its 

tributaries had some calcareous springs and flushes. Amongst the finds were Briza media 

(Quaking-grass), Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold), Carex hostiana (Tawny Sedge), Carex distichta 

(Brown Sedge), Carex pallescens (Pale Sedge), Linum catharticum (Fairy Flax), Parnassia palustris 

(Grass-of-Parnassus), Sagina nodosa (Knotted Pearlwort) and Valeriana dioica (Marsh Valerian) 

approaching its north west limits. In the river Carex acutiformis (Lesser Pond-Sedge) was a good find. 

On the mires there were typical wefts of Vaccinium oxycoccus (Cranberry) and surprising quantities of 

Andromeda polifolia (Bog-rosemary). On the wetter areas Carex curta (White Sedge) grew scattered 

across Sphagnum lawns. 

In the afternoon we moved to the south of Langholm to tetrad NY38W. This is partly on the 

Langholm and Newcastleton Hills SSSI, an extensive upland moorland. Just south of Cronksbank 

farm the Tarras water has cut a deep valley with deciduous woodland and some calcareous flushes 

coming out of the hillside. Immediate attention was drawn to an extensive stand of Equisetum 

telmateia (Great Horsetail). Michael Braithwaite was on hand to confirm Trichophorum cespitosum 

nothospp.foersteri (a deergrass). Carex laevigata (Smooth-stalked Sedge), Carex paniculata (Greater 

Tussock-sedge) and Carex lasiocarpa (Slender Sedge) were amongst 17 Carex species found. A 

search for Trientalis europaea (Chickweed-wintergreen) was fruitless under towering bracken and will 

have to be looked for earlier next year. Out of the valley the dry heath had been extensively burnt 

earlier in the year and the vegetation was only just recovering. Despite this, typical dwarf shrubs like 

Calluna vulgaris (Ling), Erica tetralix (Cross-leaved Heath) and Erica cinerea (Bell Heather) and 

good quantities of Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Cowberry) were coming away with the surprisingly resilient 

Drosera rotundifolia (Round-leaved Sundew) on bare patches of peat. 

On the way back to Lockerbie we passed through tetrad NY38J so a quick visit was made to look 

along the banks of the Esk at Burnfoot. The river here has woodland along the banks and is not 

grazed. Typical woodland edge species included Bromopsis ramosa (Hairy-brome), Brachypodium 

sylvaticum (False Brome) and Geranium sylvaticum (Wood Crane's-bill). On the river bank there was 

Symphytum t1,lberosum (Tuberous Comfrey) and Stellaria nemorum (Wood Stitchwort). 

On the Sunday we aITanged to meet at the Devils Beef Tub north of Moffat to look at a square on 

the Moffat Hills. Unfortunately rain of tropical intensity meant it was hard to see out of the car and we 

retreated to a lower tetrad near Parkgate (NY08J). This had more intensive agriculture but some 

higher ground that looked interesting. Part of a small loch falls in the square and this had a good 

population of Cicuta virosa (Cowbane) together with Apium inundatum (Lesser Marshwort), Lythrum 

portula (Water-purslane) and Potentilla palustris (Marsh Cinquefoil). On a roadside verge we found


Carex muricata ssp. lamprocarpa (Prickly Sedge) and on the wall around a church hall Ceterach 

ojjicinarum (Rustyback). In afternoon the owners of Kirkland Farm allowed us to walk across their 

hill and explore an interesting gully and an area of rough grassland. Carex laevigata (Smooth-stalked 

Sedge) was found again, this time growing along a burn outwith woodland. On the open poorly 

drained rough grassland there was plenty of Crepis paludosa (Marsh Hawk's-beard) and Carex 

binervis (Green-ribbed Sedge) together with Hydrocotyle vulgaris (Marsh Pennywort), Viola palustris 

(Marsh violet), Narthecium ossifragum (Bog Asphodel) and small quantities of Parnassia palustris 

(Grass-of-Parnassus). 

Overall a good three days work and a major advance made for 6 of the 13 tetrads to be covered in 

Dumfriesshire. 

CHRIS MILES 

CARMARTHENSHIRE RECORDING MEETING (v.c. 44) 26 th July - 2 nd August 

By popular request, the annual Carmarthenshire Recording Meeting was extended from a weekend to a 

full week. The intention was to include a mix of both experienced and less experienced botanists and 

referees were to be invited to deal with a selection of critical groups and species. Our aspirations in 

these respects were more than adequately fulfilled with over twenty members from all over the country 

taking part including both local and national experts. 

Most participants arrived in time for lunch on Saturday 26 th July at Glynhir, near Ammanford, 

which was to be our base for the week. The first visit in the afternoon was to the disused 

Glangwenlais Carboniferous Limestone Quarry in the Carmel Woods National Nature Reserve, where 

Tony and Viv Lewis showed the party a few rosettes of Dipsacus pilosus (Small Teasel) at the 

entrance. Nearby a Euphrasia (eyebright) with an upright habit and distinctive acute leaf-lobes was 

later determined by Alan Silverside (AJS) as Euphrasia arctica ssp. cf. arctica, a new record for the 

lOkm square and only the 3,d v.c. record. Other noteworthy records included Elymus caninus (Bearded 

Couch), Sanguisorba ojjicinalis (Greater Burnet) and Carex distans (Distant Sedge) and at the margin 

of a small pool, Triglochin palustre (Marsh Arrowgrass). 

The next visit was just a few hundred metres away to Pentregwenlais Quarry, another disused 

limestone working with tall imposing lime kilns bearing the date 1903. By the track was a single plant 

of what was considered by the gathering to be Rumex crispus x R. sanguineus x R. obtusifolius (a 

hybrid dock) but its identity remains unconfirmed. Further on, the party was shown Equisetum 

variegatum (Variegated Horsetail) in abundance in flushed pools together with E. palustre (Marsh 

Horsetail), E. arvense (Common Horsetail) and E. xlitorale (E. fluviatile x E. arvense) (Shore 

Horsetail) and material was collected for later examination in the hope of proving further hybrids. 

After dinner, during the evening session, Sam Thomas spent several hours examining the specimens 

under the microscope and putatively determined some of the material as E. xrothmaleri (E. arvense x 

E. palustre). 

On Sunday 27th July we had arranged to join Plantlife members to visit the Plantlife grassland 

reserve at Cae Blaen Dyffryn, south of Lampeter. Several Dryopteris (Male-fern) taxa were present in 

the hedge by the car-park and Sam Thomas was able to demonstrate the subtle differences between 

D. affinis ssp. cambrensis and D. affinis ssp. ajjinis (Scaly Male-ferns). After a short introduction to 

the reserve by Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife members split into small groups in order to carry out quadrat 

recording in the dry, more neutral parts of the site whilst the BSBI party was asked to plot the extent of 

the population of Danthonia decumbens (Heath Grass). Species of particular interest on the dry 

south-facing' slope included a few plants of purple flowered Viola lutea (Mountain Pansy) and an 

abundance of Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell), and in the wet, Molinia caerulea (Purple 

Moor-grass) and Juncus (rush) dominated south-east corner of the site, Carum verticillatum (Whorled 

Caraway), Scutellaria minor (Lesser Skullcap), Narthecium ossifragum (Bog Asphodel), Dryopteris 

carthusiana (Narrow Buckler-fern) and D. xdeweveri (a hybrid Buckler-fern) were recorded. The 

reserve is noted for its abundance of Butterfly-orchids with 3480 P. bifolia (Lesser Butterfly-orchid)


and 2440 P. chlorantha (Greater Butterfly-orchid) counted in 2002. At the time of our visit, most had 

finished flowering but after lunch, all present spread out in a line at the top of the field and slowly 

walked downhill counting all the orchid spikes as they went. The total tally was 1923, it not being 

possible to certainly distinguish between the two species in seed. This is likely to be an underestimate, 

as plants are less conspicuous in seed and when looking south into the sun and downhill. 

On the return to Glynhir, a short stop was made to revisit the Equisetum populations at 

Pentregwenlais Quarry with Trevor Dines, as he has particular interest and expertise in the Equisetum 

hybrids having recently discovered E. xrichardsii, new to science, in North Wales. 

The weather on Monday 28'h started fine but by lunchtime the rain started in earnest and continued 

almost incessantly until Thursday! After breakfast, the party travelled to Tireithin Farm, on the 

northern side of the Gwendraeth Fawr valley above Pontyberem where we met Andrew Stevens who 

had arranged access with the owners, Sue and Tony Matthews. Mike Porter joined us for the day and 

identified most of the brambles as well as taking away specimens for later determination. The 

hedge-bank by the track supported some fine plants of Dryopteris affinis ssp. cambrensis, whilst parts 

of the adjacent pastures were white with Carum verticillatum. The highlight was the opportunity to 

examine an extensive valley mire occupying the impervious linear hollow between the outcrops of the 

Farewell Rock and the Basal Grits of the Millstone Grit Series. Eriophorum vaginatum (Hare's-tail 

Cottongrass), E. angustifolium (Common Cottongrass), Narthecium ossifragum, and Drosera 

rotundifolia (Common Sundew) were all frequent locally, and a few plants of Vaccinium oxycoccos 

(Cranberry) were also present scrambling over the Sphagnum (bog-moss) carpet. Arthur Chater 

confirmed the identity of Carex hostiana x C. viridula ssp. oedocarpa (c. xfulva) (a hybrid sedge), 

growing in the vicinity of both parents, and determined the Trichophorum cespitosum (Deergrass) as 

var. germanicum. Sandwiches were eaten somewhat hastily under the shelter of umbrellas before 

continuing to another part of the mire where the vegetation was more base-rich and included stands of 

Cirsium dissectum (Meadow Thistle), Serratula tinctoria (Saw-wort), Carex pulicaris (Flea Sedge) 

and Carex hostiana (Tawny Sedge). Returning to the cars a small population of Ophioglossum 

vulgatum (Adder's-tongue) was seen growing beneath an open Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn) thicket: it 

was surmised that it owed its survival to the thorn bushes protecting it from the grazing goats. 

A short stop was made at Gorswen Quarry near Maesybont on the way back to Glynhir. The rain 

was very heavy by now, but the population of Equisetum hyemale (Rough Horsetail), known since the 

1950s, was found to be more extensive along the roadside hedge-banks than previously recorded. 

Rorippa islandica (Northern Yellow-cress) and R. palustris (Marsh Yellow-cress) were growing 

together in shallow ephemeral puddles on the floor of the disused quarry, both new records for this 

site. 

The rain continued all Tuesday but did not deter the majority of participants from enthusiastically 

braving the Welsh weather! However, Dr Alan Silverside, Arthur Chater and Richard Pryce sensibly 

stayed in to study Euphrasias during the morning as many specimens had been sent for Alan to 

determine: his timely arrival just before breakfast had provided a perfect excuse to avoid going out in 

the rain! Jean Green, Margot Godfrey, Ailsa Burns and Caroline Tero decided to visit the National 

Botanic Garden of Wales at Middleton and the nearby Aberglasney Gardens. They were impressed 

with both and also managed to record many weeds! Sam Thomas, Heather Slade, Graham Kay, John 

Killick and Roy Vickery headed off to meet James and Mary Iliffat Blaenau, near Llanddeusant, in the 

upper Sawdde valley, in order to do some Local Change recording in SN72W. The vegetation 

included most species expected from this upland, sheep-decimated site and Saxifraga hypnoides 

(Mossy Saxifrage) and Equisetum variegatum were re-found in riverside flushes. Euphrasia 

specimens c.ollected by Sam were examined later by Alan Silverside and amongst the E. confusa 

(previously known from the site) were some plants which fitted the characters of E. rivularis. 

Trevor Evans and Roger Maskew arrived after breakfast on Wednesday 30'h and joined the group 

visiting Carreg Cennen Castle, one aim of which was to monitor roses recorded in the past by Mrs 

Vaughan (v.c. Recorder until 1978). However, the result was largely disappointing although some of 

the site's specialities were seen including Veronica spicata ssp. hybrida (Spiked Speedwell), Allium 

schoenoprasum (Chives) and Sorbus porrigentiformis (Spreading Whitebeam). Meanwhile Margot


Godfrey, Heather Slade, Kath Cottingham and Richard Pryce travelled to Llanpumsaint to record 

SN42J for the Local Change scheme. Permission was obtained to look at land including an 

ornamental lake which had been excavated since the 1986-87 Monitoring Scheme. The surrounding 

fields, woodland and river were also examined but some of the most notable records came from the 

farmyard where Rorippa islandica and Nicandra physalodes (Apple-of-Peru) were growing in the 

gravel (both first records for the 10km square). The owner had sown a wildflower mix on an area of 

spread subsoil and this had yielded Anthemis austriaca (Austrian Chamomile) (a new v.c. record), 

Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower) and Agrostemma githago (Corncockle). The lake had an alarmingly 

large raft of Nymphoides peltata (Fringed Water-lily) but Hypericum elodes (Marsh St John's-wort), 

Potentilla palustris (Marsh Cinquefoil) and Menyanthes trifoliata (Bogbean) were frequent around the 

margins and Dryopteris carthusiana, Scutellaria minor (Lesser Scullcap) and Carex rostrata (Bottle 

Sedge) were in a nearby fen where Heather also discovered a sloughed Grass Snake skin. 

On Thursday, one group planned to go to Cilycwm to try to re-find some of the roses recorded by 

Mrs Vaughan in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. On arrival, it was obvious that the task would not be as easy 

or rewarding as was hoped, because all the hedgerows were overly manicured and although roses were 

frequent, we were hard-pressed to find fruits on many plants. However, seven Rosa taxa were 

recorded in the morning, including R. tomentosa (Harsh Downy-rose), although Mrs Vaughan's 

R. stylosa (Short-styled Field-rose) plants were not seen. As a bonus, Rorippa islandica was found to 

be quite frequent at several locations along the roadside verge (a new 10km square record for SN74). 

After lunch, more lane-tramping resulted in only one new rose being added to the list (Rosa arvensis 

(t) x R. canina (m» and it was decided that Roger Maskew would continue on his own to further 

examine the roadside hedges, whilst the remainder of the group would go on to Blaenau, 

Llanddeusant, to search for the possible Euphrasia rivularis. Roger was successful in finding four 

hybrids not seen previously, including R. sherardii (t) x R. arvensis (m), a rose new to the v.c, which 

was later confirmed by Tony Primavesi. The Euphrasia group quickly refound the site discovered by 

Tuesday's party and the identity of E. rivularis was confirmed by Alan Silverside, a new v.c. record of 

a UK Biodiversity Action Plan and Section 74 species (see colour section, plate 3). It was 

characteristically growing in base-rich flushes with, for example, Briza media (Quaking Grass) and 

Linum catharticum (Fairy Flax), whereas the E. confosa plants were invariably in drier, more acid 

grassland. A rapid search of the area confirmed E. rivularis to be frequent in the Old Red Sandstone 

flushes spanning two 10km squares (SN72 and SN82). On the journey back, the cars were held-up by 

a flock of sheep being driven across the road near Llanddeusant. Suddenly Trevor Evans jumped out, 

having seen a plant of Vicia orobus (Wood Bitter-vetch) growing on the roadside bank, a new site for 

the species! 

Meanwhile, two other groups had been recording tetrads for Local Change. The results included 

yet another Rorippa islandica record and Berberis vulgaris (Barberry), both from SN42W, and 

Matricaria recutita (Scented Mayweed) and Orchis mascula (Early Purple-orchid) from SNI2A. 

Friday I SI August turned out, at last, to be sunny and hot, in fact, the start of the prolonged sunny 

spell which was to follow! The whole party travelled down the Gwendraeth valley in order to visit the 

coastal dunes at Pembrey Forest. In the area where we parked, Centaurium littorale (Seaside 

Centaury), C. pulchellum (Lesser Centaury) and C. erythraea (Common Centaury) were all in flower 

in a winter-flooding sandy ride-verge in the same vicinity as the single plant of Scirpoides 

holoschoenus (Round-headed Club-rush) discovered here the previous year. Isolepis cernua (Slender 

Club-rush) was frequent nearby and Baldellia ranunculoides (Lesser Water-plantain) and Pyrola 

rotundifolia ssp. maritima (Round-leaved Wintergreen) were occasional. In one area of dry dunes 

Parentucellia viscosa (Yellow Bartsia) was frequent and roses later confirmed by Roger Maskew 

included Rosa stylosa, R. canina (t) x R. stylosa (m) and R. tomentosa (t) x R. canina (m), which were 

additional to R. micrantha (Small-flowered Sweet-briar) determined in the field by Graham Kay and 

Arthur Chater. To round-off the day the party visited the beach where characteristic species included a 

single plant of Atriplex laciniata (Frosted Orache) and the rare strandIine woodlouse Armadillidium 

album which was found under a large piece of flotsam.


After dinner the group was treated to an informal but informative walk at Glynhir, when Roy 

Vickery gave us the benefit of his considerable knowledge relating to the folklore of plants, using 

specimens, both native and planted, growing in the walled-garden. 

After breakfast on Saturday 2nd, the party were sorry to have to break-up as participants departed to 

their various corners of the country. All had enjoyed the week, despite the generally poor weather, and 

all, even the 'experts', had learnt a lot. The leaders would like to thank all participants' contributions, 

particularly the referees and experts who were present. The extended duration of the meeting had also 

provided the opportunity to revisit both Pentregwenlais Quarry and Blaenau, L1anddeusant, in order to 

re-examine critical plants found earlier in the week. 

KATH COTTlNGHAM & RICHARD PRYCE 

BEN MORE, MULL (v.c. 103) 30 th July - I't August 

The Ben More square is one of the most challenging on the island of Mull, rising from sea level to 

966m. The 3 tetrads, A, J and Ware located on the SW slopes, the northern shore, and the steep-sided 

valley of Glen Cannel on the eastern side. This gave the group of 17 members more than enough 

habitats and aspects to be explored and recorded for the Local Change project. 

The group divided up into three and everyone set off on a fine day on July 30 to cover as much of 

the tetrads as possible. Some areas were easily accessible but others involved a reasonable climb and 

walk-in. We exchanged notes in the evening at Salen, and one group asked me if we had found 

anything of particular note, in return saying they had found masses of Pinguicula lusitanica (Pale 

Butterwort) and a few plants of Spiranthes romanzoJfiana (Irish Lady's-tresses). I commented - 

P. lusitanica is abundant on Mull and there's not much chance of your having found S. romanzoJfiana. 

Not to be put off by this, they restated that they had found Spiranthes. So, having described the habitat 

perfectly, we all set off after dinner to verify the find - two flowering plants were enjoyed by all the 

party - and this was only day one of the trip! The species has previously been recorded from Mull 

but this was an unexpected and welcome find. It just proves that many pairs of botanical eyes turn up 

good records. 

The groups in tetrads A and W had a tougher task regarding the terrain and did not have such 

spectacular finds, but still recorded more species than previously found in 1987, including some 

base-rich species in restricted patches - Gymnocarpium dryopteris (Oak Fern), Cirsium 

heterophyllum (Melancholy Thistle), Scutellaria minor (Lesser Skullcap), Luzula spicata (Spiked 

Wood-rush), Silene acaulis (Moss Campion), Teesdalia nudicaulis (Shepherd's Cress), Cystopteris 

fragilis (Brittle Bladder-fern) and possibly Alchemilla glomerulans (a lady's-mantle). 

On the second day, which must have been one of the wettest this year, two groups set out along the 

northern shores of Loch Ba, where Subularia aquatica (Awlwort) was relocated on the gravelly 

shoreline, and Scleranthus annuus (Annual Knawel) found on the gravel track. The third group 

returned ( gluttons for punishment) to tetrad W in Glen Cannel. A search was made for the only 

record of Ranunculus auricomus (Goldilocks Buttercup) in Mull, despite it not being the ideal time of 

year for this species, but it was not relocated. However, a full survey of the steep, rocky slopes, 

gorges, scattered woodland, wet grassland, bog and riversides was achieved. 

The last day was spent on the island of Ulva, and everyone recorded in the one tetrad around U1va 

House and the ferry. This might have seemed a bit of overkill, but I knew that this was a very rich 

area, and it proved to occupy the whole group throughout the day. The variety of habitats - 

saItmarsh, tracks, mature woodland, grassland, rock outcrops and wet heath - all add to the botanical 

and scenic diversity. We were able to provide the owner, Jamie Howard, with a full list of plants in 

the environs of his house. Salicornia spp. (glassworts), Juncus maritimus (Sea Rush), Gentianella 

campestris (Field Gentian), Ligusticum scoticum (Scots Lovage), Allium ursinum (Ramsons), Blysmus 

rufus (SaItmarsh Flat-sedge), Bolboschoenus maritimus (Sea Club-rush), Carex extensa (Long-bracted 

Sedge), Crepis capillaris (Smooth Hawk's-beard), Eleogiton fluitans (Floating Club-rush),


Platanthera bifolia (Lesser Butterfly-orchid) and Sanicula europaea (Sanicle) were just a few of the 

more interesting species recorded. 

I would like to thank all the people who helped on this very successful BSBI Local Change meeting. 

LYNNE FARRELL 

MoD RANGE, ABERPORTH. CARDIGANSHIRE (v.c. 46) 9 th August 

Twenty five members, as well as eight present and past members of the very active conservation group 

on the range who accompanied and looked after us, met on an uncomfortably hot day on this shadeless 

coastal headland for a clockwise walk encompassing a wide range of habitats and most of the SSSI. 

Ungrazed and unploughed since the late 1930s, much of the site has reverted to coastal heath and 

species-rich calcareous grassland, managed only by mowing which aims to keep a balance between the 

needs of the abundant nesting skylarks and the plant communities. Although a total of 417 species and 

hybrids had already been recorded on the c.1S0 hectare site, we added a further ten. 

After crossing extensive rank grassland, where we located a colony of Ophioglossum vulgatum 

(Adder's-tongue), Tony Lewis found Lamium amplexicaule (Henbit Dead-nettle) and L. hybridum 

(Cut-leaved Dead-nettle) on a shaley road verge where Vicia lathyroides (Spring Vetch) was also 

present (all new for the site). We soon reached the heath at the north-west comer of the site where 

Viola lactea x V. riviniana (a hybrid Dog-violet) was frequent; pure V. lactea (Pale Dog-violet) was 

only tentatively identified. A circular flushed area had Salix repens (Creeping Willow), Carex 

pulicaris (Flea Sedge), C. hostiana (Tawny Sedge) and Scutellaria minor (Lesser Skullcap), and then 

we went down the slope to a damp gravelly area where there was a great abundance of Anagallis 

minima (Chaffweed). Most or all of this had only four petals, allowed by Ross-Craig and various 

European Floras, but surprisingly not by Stace, CTM or Flora Europaea. After looking at perhaps the 

only native colony of Brachypodium pinnatum (Tor-grass) in the county, we moved on to the top of 

Cribach Bay where Roger Maskew demonstrated Rosa micrantha x R. canina and R. caesia ssp. 

caesia x R. canina (both new for the site) along with R. micrantha (Small-flowered Sweet-briar), 

R. sherardii (Sherard's Downy-rose) and three of the groups of R. canina (Dog-rose). Steve Chambers 

and Andy lones found another new species nearby, Clinopodium vulgare (Wild Basil). 

We thanked especially Chris Shipton and Marleen Edwards for arranging the meeting, and 

congratulated Marleen on the recently completed two-volume Site Dossier which was exhibited and 

from which copies of the species list and botanical map were circulated to participants. 

ARTHUR CHATER 

ALLERTHORPE COMMON AND POCKLINGTON CANAL HEAD (v.c. 61), 16 th August 

Ten people attended this excursion, the first in v.c. 61 since 1998. Despite extensive forestation 

Allerthorpe Common still offers a rich diversity of plants along several rides and tracks and has 

perhaps the highest concentration of notable species in the vice-county. An area is fenced off and 

maintained as a nature reserve by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), and it was in this that we saw 

Hypericum elodes (Marsh St lohn's-wort) in its only known East Riding station. The YWT manages 

this part of the Common as an open heath by grazing and a small area of marsh is now fenced off to 

protect this locally rare species. A few metres away, Roger Martin discovered a stand of Pteridium 

aquilinum ssp. atlanticum (Bracken), a taxon hitherto unrecorded in the v.c. *. Tightly curled and hairy 

crosiers were evident on each plant at this late summer date whereas plants of 'ordinary' bracken were 

without crosiers. At one location we counted 20 plants of Gnaphalium sylvaticum (Heath Cudweed) 

growing together with Filago minima (Small Cudweed) and during the day three different new 

locations were found for Heath Cudweed. This elicited much note-taking and photography during 

which time several missed seeing Polygala serpyllifolia (Heath Milkwort), another locally scarce plant 

and specialist on this site. Searches for Anagallis minima (Chaffweed), Radiola lino ides (Allseed), 

Cirsium dissection (Meadow Thistle), Drosera spp. (Sundews) and Pyrola minor (Common

78 Reports of Field Meetings / Stop Press 

Wintergreen) proved unfruitful. However, Anagallis tenella (Bog Pimpernel), Spergularia rubra 

(Sand Spurrey) and Ornithopus perpusillus (Bird's-foot) were found. Lythrum portula (Waterpurslane) 

and Persicaria hydropiper (Water-pepper) occurred abundantly in shaded wet wheel ruts. 

Apera spica-venti (Loose Silky-bent) has long been known to grow in crops bordering AUerthorpe 

Common but none was found on this occasion. However, Agrostis gigantea (Black Bent) was new to 

several members of the group. Of frequent comment were the observations of very small plants of 

Veronica scutellata (Marsh Speedwell) that seemed insistent on survival despite the prevailing drought 

conditions. 

Later, the group visited Pocklington Canal Head, a site that has had some reputation for scarce 

aquatics and has recently suffered 'amenification'. It proved disappointing on this visit although 

flowering Elodea nuttallii (Nuttall's Waterweed) was a new experience for some of us. The day ended 

on a decidedly sour note with few of the company able to appreciate the subtle plum flavour of Prunus 

x fruticans relative to Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn). 

* A few days later, Dr Eric Chicken made a valiant attempt to find this stand but my directions proved 

inaccurate. However, he did find, in the same general locality, Molinia caerulea ssp. arundinacea, 

which had escaped our notice. 

PETER 1. COOK 

STOP PRESS 

FINE EXAMPLES OF SOME COUNTY FLORAS FOR DISPOSAL 

Druce, G.C. The Flora of Buckinghamshire. 1926. Map. An exceptional copy, free of all defects. 

Near MINT - £100 

GROSE, D. Flora of Wiltshire 1957. 824, maps, photos. Fine -£50 

LEE, F.A. The Flora of West Yorkshire with a sketch of Climatology 1888. VG -£60 

PAINTER, W.H. A Contribution to the Flora of Derbyshire 1889. VG -£40 

PRYOR, A.R. A Flora of Hertfordshire 1887. Near fine. - £50 

SAVAGE, 1.P., V.H. HEYWOOD & V.GORDON Travis's Flora of South Lancashire 1963 (Ist ed.), map, 

VGlfine - £30 

Enquiries for more details to Mrs M.L. Long, Ozarda, Les Hamonnets, St John Jersey JE3 4FP. 

Tellfax 01534 862473; email: randmlong@localdial.com> 

The General Editor Gwynn Ellis can be contacted by phone or fax on 029-2049-6042 or 

email: rgellis@ntlworld.com 

The Receiving Editor Dr Leander Wolstenholme can be contacted by phone on 0151 4784278 by 

fax on 0151478 4350 or emaiI: leander.wolstenholme@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk 

All text and illustrations appearing in BSBI News and its Supplements are copyright and no 

reproduction in any form may be made without written permission from the General Editor. 

Offers and special terms apply only to members of the Society and copies are not available on an 

exchange basis. 

BSBINews (rSSN 0309-930X) is published by the Botanical Society of the British Isles. 

Enquiries concerning the Society's activities and membership should be addressed to: The Hon. 

General Secretary, clo Dept. of Botany, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London 

SW7 5BD. Tel: 01719388701 

Camera ready copy produced by Gwynn Ellis and printed by J. & P. Davison, 3 James Place, Treforest, 

Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan CF37 ISQ (Tel. 01443-400585; email: davison-litho@ukf.net)

Contents 79 

Continued from back cover 

ALIENS (continued) 

Is Salvia sclarea declining? ...................................................................... 49 

Euonymus japonicus - how fast is it decreasing? .................................................... 49 

Three Sedum escapes in England and Scotland .................................................... 51-52 

Sedum kimnachii in Kent ..................................................................... 51 

Phedimus stoloni{erus (Sedum stoloniferum) naturalised in Scotland .................................. 52 

Sedum brevi{olium - another escape in Scotland ................................................. 52 

Trifolium stellatum in Hampshire .................................................................. 52 

A Hybrid Mallow with Garden Potential ............................................................ 54 

NOTICES (BSBI) ................................................................................. 57 

Picas de Europa ................................................................................ 57 

NOTICES (Non-BSBI) .......................................................................... 57-61 

Flora Locale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 57 

Plant Evolution in Mediterranean Climate Zones ..................................................... 58 

Plant Identification Courses ...................................................................... 58 

Wild flowers and their identification ............................................................... 58 

Taxonomists: your National Focal Point Needs You for Services to Biodiversity Conservation ................. 59 

Hemiparasites Symposium ....................................................................... 59 

Insect-Plant Interactions: From Parasitism to Mutualism ............................................... 59 

Explaining species abundance distributions: Biodiversity over time ....................................... 60 

World Wetlands Day Conference .................................................................. 60 

REQUESTS ................................................................................... 61-62 

Botanical English Editor required for Willows of the Urals ............................................. 61 

Photographs of British plants ..................................................................... 61 

Erophila ...................................................................................... 62 

OFFERS ...................................................................................... 62-64 

New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora for sale ....................................................... 62 

Free botanical publications from National Museums & Galleries on Vales ................................. 62 

Seeds from Ware - 2003 ........................................................................ 63 

Gofynne Seed List 2004 ......................................................................... 63 

BOOK NOTES ................................................................................. 64-66 

Supplement to Alien Grasses of the British Isles ...................................................... 64 

Catalogue of Botanical Prints and Drawings at the National Museums & Galleries of Wales .................. 65 

A Flora of Cumbria: Corrigenda .................................................................. 65 

Fritillary ..................................................................................... 65 

'Dating one's Bentham' reprieved ................................................................. 66 

OBITUARY NOTES ............................................................................ 66-68 

Dr F.H. Perring ................................................................................ 66 

Mr R.H. Roberts ............................................................................... 67 

Mr PJ. Selby ................................................................................ 67 

Mr F.W. Simpson .............................................................................. 68 

Erophila verna seedlings ............................................................................ 68 

REPORTS OF FIELD MEETINGS -2003 ......................................................... 69-78 

Castell Dinas Bran, LIangollen, Denbighshire (v.c. 50) 3rd May ......................................... 69 

Murlough, Co. Down (v.c. H38) 18th May .......................................................... 70 

Uskmouth Wetlands Reserve (v.c. 35) 5th July ....................................................... 70 

Lockerbie.Dumfriesshire (v.c.72) 18th-20th July ..................................................... 71 

Carmarthenshire Recording Meeting (v.c.44) 26th July - 2nd August ..................................... 73 

Ben More, Mull (v.c. 103) 30th July - I st August .................................................... 76 

MoD Range, Aberporth, Cardiganshire (v.c. 46) 9th August ............................................ 77 

Allerthorpe Common and Pocklington Canal Head (v.c. 61), 16th August ................................. 77 

STOP PRESS ..................................................................................... 78 

Fine examples of some County Floras for disposal .................................................... 78

CONTENTS 

ADMINISTRATION and IMPORTANT ADDRESSES .................................................... 2 

Deadline for contributions for BSBI News 96 ......................................................... 2 

ADVERTISEMENT ................................................................................ 3 

IMPORTANT NOTICES ............................................................................. 4 

From the President .............................................................................. 4 

BSBI Development Fund Appeal ................................................................... 5 

New BSBI postcards ............................................................................. 5 

DIARy ........................................................................................... 5 

EDITORIAL ....................................................................................... 6 

Congratulations: ................................................................................. 6 

Colour section .................................................................................. 6 

New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora ............................................................... 6 

Vice-county Census Catalogue ..................................................................... 6 

Members email addresses ......................................................................... 6 

Field Studies Council ............................................................................ 7 

And finally: .................................................................................... 7 

BSBI VOLUNTEERS OFFICER ...................................................................... 7 

By way of introduction. .. ........................................................................ 7 

BSBI Local Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

CO-ORDINATOR'S CORNER ...................................................................... 8-9 

Countryside matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 8 

Conservation battlegrounds .................................................................... : . .. 8 

Threatened Plants Database ....................................................................... 9 

RECORDERS AND RECORDING ................................................................. 9-12 

Panel of Referees and Specialists ................................................................... 9 

Panel of Vice-county Recorders ................................................................... 10 

Plant Records for Walsonia and the Vice-County Census Catalogue ...................................... 10 

Beyond Trainspotting ........................................................................... II 

Solution to Crossword No. 4 ...................................................................... 12 

NOTES AND ARTICLES ........................................................................ 12-34 

The enigma ofthe alien heathers of Britain, especially Erica xdarleyensis ................................. 12 

Floral Abberations .............................................................................. 14 

Drought resistant Ranunculus ficaria? .............................................................. 14 

A singularly double form of Card amine pralensis ..................................................... 14 

Coastal Elylrigia species and hybrids in north-western England and northern Wales ......................... 15 

Plants at the edge - the southern limit of Erigeron borealis ............................................. 19 

What lies across the channel? ..................................................................... 21 

A key to Bromeae in the Mediterranean climatic zones of Southern Europe, South West Asia, and North Africa 22-26 

The Fen Nettle, Urtica galeopsifolia, in Staffordshire .................................................. 27 

Scrophularia scorodonia (Scrophulariaceae): Native in South Hampshire? ................................. 28 

Geranium purpureum sUbspecies .................................................................. 29 

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) in Ayrshire (v.c. 75) .................................................... 30 

Cleavers: size, seedlings & frost resistance .......................................................... 30 

Lemna minula V: root caps and root chloroplasts ..................................................... 31 

Carex muricata ssp. muricata in southern England .................................................... 32 

Botany (Talking flowers) in literature .............................................................. 33 

Botanical Crossword No 4 ........................................................................... 35 

Sambucus niger seedlings ........................................................................... 35 

CONSERVATION NEWS & VIEWS .............................................................. 36-44 

New plant status lists for Great Britain .............................................................. 36 

Gnaphalium luteoalbum needs no special protection .................................................. 43 

Carex vulpina and biodiversity action plans ......................................................... 44 

Sanguisorba minor seedlings ......................................................................... 44 

ALIENS ...................................................................................... 45-57 

Akebia quinala (Houtt.) Decne. (Lardizabalaceae) new to West Kent and spreading? ........................ 45 

Another lawn Lobelia: Pratia pedunculata .......................................................... 46 

Distinguishing Lonicera nilida and L. pileata ........................................................ 48 

Echinochloa crus-galli and major roads ............................................................. 48 

Continued on inside back cover 

11

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