Myriophyllum alterniflorum DC. Alternate Water-milfoil
Lockton, conf. C.D. Preston) and in four of the pools at Pole Cottage (SO4193, Thorne).
Native. Scarce.
Rashmi Dave recorded it in the Montgomery Canal at Maesbury Marsh (SJ3124) in 1986.
Andrew Bloxam holds the first British record of this species, which he found in a pond by the side of the canal near Whixall Moss (SJ4935) and near Cole Mere (SJ4333) in 1836. It is a plant of clear, oligotrophic waters, and was once quite widespread in the English lowlands but is now very rare. It is still frequent in upland areas, however. Leighton (1841) recorded it at Berrington Pool (SJ5207), Cole Mere (SJ4333), Morda Pool (SJ2828), Rednal Moss (SJ3426) and The Mere, Ellesmere (SJ4034). Phillips reported that it was still at Berrington Pool in 1878, and in 1896 W.P. Hamilton found it at Betton Pool. Since then it has not been recorded in any of the meres & mosses. In 1977 Joan Connell found it in the River Perry at Fitz (SJ4418, det. P.A. Wolseley), but the only other river it has been recorded in is the Tanat at Llanyblodwel (SJ2322), where it just makes it into the county after being quite frequent in Wales (Lockton, 1994). Myriophyllum alterniflorum 4
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It was first discovered on the Long Mynd by Audrey Ashwell in 1982, in a pond on the golf course (SO4494), and has since been seen there by Joyce Warren (1986 & 1991) and Kate Thorne (2000). It was abundant in the reservoir and in several pools along the stream in New Pool Hollow (SO4394) in 1999 (Whild & Rare Plants of Shropshire
Myriophyllum verticillatum L. Whorled Water-milfoil Native. Extinct (1897). This is a plant of base-rich waters, not common, but widespread, in Britain. It occurs in shallow, slow-moving water in ditches and canals. Edward Williams recorded it at Eaton upon the Weald Moors (SJ6514) in about 1800, where it was later recorded by Beckwith in 1880. Henry Bidwell found it at nearby Sidney Moor (SJ6416) in 1841 (conf. Leighton) and R. Anslow listed it as a plant of the Weald Moors in 1865. By 1897 it had spread to the Newport Canal at Kynnersley (SJ6816, Phillips), but it has not been recorded in this region since then. There are several other sites in the county where it has been recorded just once. Williams recorded it in a pond at Golding (SJ5403) and at Blake Mere (SJ4133) in about 1800; in Leighton’s Flora of 1841 there is a record by Mary McGhie for a canal near Ludlow (presumably the Leominster Canal at Woofferton, SO5168); and in 1897 William Painter collected it at Hem Mill (SJ7205, conf. G.C. Druce). Two recent records seem somewhat dubious. In 1979 Joan Connell apparently collected it in the River Severn at Isle Grange (SJ4516, det. P.A. Wolseley) and Sarah Stafford recorded it further upstream at Loton Park (SJ3417). It has not been found in the Severn again, and the habitat does not seem right. The explanation may be that the key to Myriophyllum given in British Water Plants (Haslam, Sinker & Wolseley 1975, p. 259) puts too much emphasis on the number of leaves in a whorl and could lead to erroneous determinations. Unless further evidence turns up, it is probably best to disregard the records from the Severn.
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