Native status and Mibora minima (Early Sand-grass) JAMES ROBERTSON
I
was intrigued to read about a second site for Ireland of Mibora minima (Early Sand-grass) in BSBI News 146 (Lyons, 2021). Mibora and I became neighbours when I moved to Anglesey three decades ago, but I was already interested in this tiny but attractive grass. It flowers before spring has truly arrived; the dazzle of its silver and purple spikelets and rigid posture belie its ‘minimal’ nomenclature. Anglesey is arguably its only native mainland location, and I take pride in this. But is it truly native and what does this term mean in these newly-formed inter-glacial islands in which human and natural history are so substantially woven together? I first encountered Mibora minima in 1983 with the then BSBI Hon Meetings secretary, Joanna Martin. It was growing abundantly on bare sandy ground in a nursery at West End in Surrey. It was also in an adjacent garden, formerly part of the nursery, a dense carpet in full flower in March where turf had been lifted to establish a soft fruit bed. There are old records from two nearby Surrey nurseries (Lousley, 1976). At the time it was well established at other sandy sites in Hampshire, and BSBI’s online Atlas 10
BSBI NEWS 148 | September 2021
Dark and pale forms of Mibora minima (Early Sandgrass) at Aberffraw Dunes. Jane Rees
of the British and Irish Flora notes that it is recorded inland as a casual plant in nurseries and gardens. Some years later I learned of its honoured status as a rare native plant on Anglesey. The first record for Mibora minima is in Hudson’s Flora Anglica (1762), written under the auspices of Benjamin Stillingfleet, who provided the record, but without a named location. Since it was recorded as Knappia in Welsh Botanology (1813), mainly at the outlet of Llyn Coron, at the edge of Aberffraw sand dunes, but also at Tywyn Trewan to the north, its native status on Anglesey has never been in doubt. There is no evidence that Stillingfleet ever visited Anglesey, although there were a number of prominent naturalists active on Anglesey in the late 18th century. I will come to one of these, William Morris, later. Griffiths (1895) describes it as ‘native; on dry, sandy pastures. Rare.’ He notes two locations: on Aberffraw Common and near Maelog Lake
