Anacamptis morio (Green-winged Orchid): one of the rarest native plant species in Co. Monaghan (H32), on the brink of local extinction

without a dedicated search for such taxa. Hopefully our finds can help inspire others to survey for threatened species which haven’t been recently recorded in their local area.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Cliona and Kate for coordinating the RPPI initiative in Co. Louth. Thanks to John Faulkner who has provided Cliona and Kate with lots of guidance on botany in Co. Louth, including Lycopodium.

References

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (2011). BSBI Distribution Database. Available at: https://database.bsbi.org/. Accessed: 19th January 2022. Wyse Jackson, M., FitzPatrick, Ú., Cole, E., Jebb, M., McFerran, D., Sheehy Skeffington, M. & Wright, M. (2016). Ireland Red List No. 10: Vascular Plants. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin, Ireland.

Anacamptis morio (Green-winged Orchid): one of the rarest native plant species in Co. Monaghan (H32), on the brink of local extinction

Alexis FitzGerald

Email: alexisfitzgeraldibn@gmail.com

Anacamptis morio (L.) R.M. Bateman, Pridgeon & M.W. Chase (syn. Orchis morio) (Green-winged Orchid) is one of the rarest surviving native vascular plant species occurring in Co. Monaghan (H32). This pretty, photogenic orchid species occurs in just one known site in the county. It is found in open, cattle-grazed, semi-natural, calcareous grassland over limestone outcropping in an agricultural field just west of Carrickashedoge Church in Carrickashedoge townland, south of Carrickmacross in south-east Co. Monaghan (see back cover). This region of the county is underlain by Dinantian shale and limestone bedrock, and above it, lime-rich drumlin till substrate is locally frequent, which together facilitate the existence of such (locally) rare habitats and species in this region. This is one of the most species-diverse regions of Co. Monaghan and its diversity was only truly realised in recent decades, particularly since the field surveys of the current BSBI President Lynne Farrell there in the 1970’s, in her seminal efforts to locate and record sites of scientific interest in the county (Farrell, 1972). I have also focussed a significant amount of recording effort in this region of Monaghan since I took up my role as Vice-county recorder (VCR) in 2015, with the added benefit that it is also the closest part of the county to Dublin, where I live, so is amenable to quicker day trips! Anacamptis morio was first recorded at this site in 1978 by Donal Synnott (VCR for Co. Monaghan from 1982 to 2001), who collected and pressed a voucher specimen of the population which was donated to the National Herbarium, National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin (DBN). The population was then refound during a subsequent BSBI field meeting in 1981 which was attended by Donal Synnott and Con Breen, and the record was later published by Synnott & Breen (1982). No population numbers were noted by them in

the article, nor in their field notes, however, they noted that the species at that time was “heavily grazed”. I visited the site in 2017 and refound the species for the first time since it was noted in the early 1980’s (after a gap of nearly 40 years). During that survey, I completed a full population count for the species, which totalled at that time, only two known surviving plants (one plant at Irish Grid reference N84302.98980 and another plant nearby at Irish Grid reference N84332.98877). This species grows directly adjacent to and scattered amongst a larger population of Orchis mascula (Early-purple Orchid), which occurs somewhat unusually here in open exposed grassland, especially on the thinner soil where the limestone protrudes out from the surrounding deeper soil, which micro-habitat is also favoured by Anacamptis morio. Like A. morio, O. mascula has significantly declined in this grassland habitat in recent years in Ireland and Britain, but unlike A. morio, its decline has been buffered by its relative persistence in woodland habitats (Stace et al., 2015). During a second 2019 visit (on which the same two plants were located once again and no further plants were seen), I made a careful (but nonetheless unsuccessful), plant-by-plant search for the rare hybrid between these two closely related (Bateman et al., 2003) species, × Anacamptorchis morioides, which has never been recorded before in Ireland and is very rare in Britain (Stace et al., 2015). Unfortunately, slurry had evidently been applied to the field prior to my visit. Despite the failed searches to date, it is not inconceivable that this hybrid may occur at the site, and perhaps genetic sampling of the populations here would reveal more than meets the botanist’s eye morphologically. Perhaps with time, only hybrid material will be left to indicate the former presence of A. morio in the area, as an (ephemeral) genetic artefact. A number of other locally rare calcareous grassland species have been recorded in this area in the past but have not been seen in recent years, including Clinopodium acinos (Basil Thyme), Primula veris (Cowslip), Gentianella amarella (Autumn Gentian) and Antennaria dioica (Mountain Everlasting). These species have likely also suffered greatly from the same degrading processes that are negatively affecting the survival of Anacamptis morio today. With just two known surviving plants, this population is under significant threat of local extinction in the county, without immediate targeted conservation measures on site. These would include reducing grazing pressure in the field (possibly fencing off the area where the species occurs and only cutting this area by hand once in late summer) and ceasing all slurry/fertiliser application unless and until the population re-establishes itself. Annual monitoring would then track the progress of the population over time following the changes in the local management regime. Seed could also be sampled from the population (e.g. following ENSCONET, 2009) and donated to the National Seed Bank in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, in order to facilitate potential future re-introduction of the species here, thus ensuring that the population is not lost to posterity. Anacamptis morio is threatened more widely in Ireland and has been in significant decline in recent years (Stace et al., 2015), and thus is red-listed as Vulnerable by Wyse Jackson et al. (2016). The Monaghan population is one of the most northern localities in Ireland for this predominantly central Irish species, and so is a notable outlier population (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, 2022). Semi-natural calcareous grassland in Ireland is also under significant threat (National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2019). The grassland on site is classified as dry neutral to calcareous grassland (GS1), according to the Heritage Council classification