COUNTRY ROUNDUPS: England
COUNTRY ROUNDUPS Compiled by Pete Stroh peter.stroh@bsbi.org
ENGLAND
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n the previous roundup, I mentioned recent discoveries for a number of glamorous species, including Cephalanthera rubra (Red Helleborine) and Orchis simia (Monkey Orchid). If the deadline for submission had been a couple of weeks later, I would have been able to also include good news about another rare species, one that was feared by many to be extinct in our area. In early September, rumours circulated about the appearance of a couple of flowering plants of Gentianopsis Cyperus fuscus (Brown Galingale), Walton Moor, Somerset. Helena Crouch
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BSBI NEWS 149 | January 2022
ciliata (Fringed Gentian) at its sole locality, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire (v.c. 24), where it was first discovered in 1873, and later re-discovered in 1982. The size of the Wendover population has fluctuated in the past forty years; it increased from 50 plants to a peak of 150 in 1987, but there then followed a subsequent decline, with about ten plants found in 1993, and only five plants in 2012. It had not been seen since, despite intensive searching each year. Happily, a total of four plants were recorded in 2021 in cattle-grazed turf, and were protected with wire guards to allow them the chance of setting seed. Precisely what factors were involved in its reappearance after such an apparently lengthy absence (i.e. the really interesting bit) remains unclear, though it’s worth mentioning that the turf was species rich and in fairly good condition, thanks to management directed by the National Trust in recent years. Andy McVeigh made regular visits to the site to check for evidence of fruiting, and collected one capsule (under license) for the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew. After inspection, the capsule was found to contain about two-hundred viable seeds. A proportion of the material will be deposited in the bank, and the remainder propagated ex situ. Statutory sites (SSSIs, NNRs) can often turn up surprises, and in North Somerset (v.c. 6) the Gordano Valley NNR revealed a first record of Thysselinum palustre (Milk-parsley). This species otherwise has a very restricted distribution in Somerset,
at Catcott, Shapwick Heath, Westhay Heath and Ashcott Plot, although it can be quite abundant in places at those sites. The plants were found by Natural England staff in September 2020, and confirmed by Iain Diack (NE Senior Specialist for Wetlands) in July this year. Within the same NNR, at Walton Moor, Cyperus fuscus (Brown Galingale) teeters on the brink of extirpation but was happily still present in August 2021 when Helena Crouch located seven plants, some of them the biggest she had seen, and David Hawkins recorded Eleocharis uniglumis (Slender Spike-rush), a first record for the NNR for a species that has not been seen in the vice-county since 2009. Following the rediscovery in 2017 of a single plant of Physospermum cornubiense (Bladderseed) for South Devon (v.c. 3), a second site has been found by Andrew McNeill within the same core area (near Braxton) where it was first recorded by T.R.A. Briggs in the 19th century. On the opposite side of the vice-county, Peter Greenwood recorded Lathyrus aphaca (Yellow Vetchling) as being locally abundant on cliffs behind beach huts at Seaton. Most Devon records are from East Devon between Sidmouth and Seaton, with the last record by Bill Tucker at Salcombe Mouth in 1980. The species has a befuddling mixture of native and introduced occurrences nationally, but is thought to be native at this coastal location. Revisiting promising places brings its own rewards, and in North Hampshire
