Lee Brockhurst (SJ5426) (both det. R. Melville, K). In 1980 Bill Thompson made a tentative record for Alveley (SO7683) but that has never been confirmed. In 1994 Ruth and Allan Dawes collected a specimen of Ulmus x viminalis (U. minor × plotii) from a hedgerow at Tan-y-graig (SJ2125, det. P.J. Bourne). There have been no other records of this supposedly endemic species, and it is now difficult to record as a result of the elm decline following the outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970s. Many elms seem to be recovering to some extent now, however.
Trollius europaeus 4
3
2
1
0
9
8
[Utricularia australis R.Br.] Bladderwort
7
Not in Shropshire. 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Ulmus minor Mill. Small-leaved Elm Archaeophyte. Rare. This appears to be a hedgerow tree in Shropshire, and is almost certainly planted wherever it occurs. Leighton recorded ‘Ulmus campestris, Common small-leaved Elm’ in hedges in 1841, but did not give any localities. Frank Perring found it in scattered places Attingham Park in 1972, and considered it ‘obviously planted.’ Henry Hand recorded a tree at Henley (SO4488) in 1973, but after a ‘slight attack of disease’ it was felled in 1976. Winifred Hutton found one on the west side of The Walls, Chesterton (SO7896) in 1976 and another one at Woundale (SO7792) in 1979. Perring found it in Aqueduct Plantation (SJ6815) in 1977, and Sarah Stafford recorded that a tree she found at Rowton (SJ3813) in 1978 was dead by 1981. Bryan Fowler recorded a half-dead tree at Pontesbury (SJ4005) in 1980. There are no more good records of this species in the county, although tetrad records were sent in for SO79N, SO59P and SJ74F in the 1990s.
Ulmus plotii Druce Plot’s Elm Native. Rare. George Druce first recorded Plot’s Elm at Shrewsbury (SJ4912) in 1921. In 1942 W.T. Stern collected it at Shawbury (SJ5521) and 120
There is only one record so far of this species in the county. Arthur Bennett identified it from an unlabelled specimen in William Beckwith’s herbarium long after he died. There is no evidence that it came from Shropshire, and Bennett’s determination alone is insufficient to establish that it really was that species, so it is probably best ignored. The 1842 record in Sinker’s Flora for Seaman’s Moss Pits probably relates to a site in Cheshire.
Utricularia minor L. Lesser Bladderwort Native. Rare. This species is typical of peat cuttings in lowland raised bogs, and in Shropshire it may have occurred on many of the mosses at some point in the past. Williams recorded it at Shomere Pool (SJ5007), Knockin Heath (SJ3521), and Rednal Moss (SJ3427) in about 1800. In 1805 Aikin found it at Whixall Moss (SJ4936). Babington & Leighton collected it at Bomere Pool (SJ4908) in 1835, and Bowman & Bloxam also saw it at Whixall Moss in 1841. William Phillips revisited Leighton’s site at Bomere Pool in 1878; and Beckwith also saw it there in 1880. In Diamond’s Flora of Oswestry (1891) it is listed for Clarepool Moss (SJ4334), where it was probably found by O.M. Feilden. In Hamilton’s lost Flora of 1913 there were records for the vicinity of Crose Mere (SJ4300) and Cole Mere (SJ4333), but the details are lost. Rare Plants of Shropshire