The hunt is on for Wales’ missing wild plants

A new scheme will see botanists scouring some of Wales’ most special landscapes this summer, as they search for wild plants that haven’t been seen for decades.

The project, run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) with funding from the Welsh Government’s Nature Networks Programme, aims to rediscover rare plants across the country.

BSBI Wales Officer, Alastair Hotchkiss, said “Local botanists are often the only people visiting and recording rare plants, so they have a critical role to play in conserving the wild plants of Wales.”

The focus of this summer’s project is on plants that are missing on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). These sites often exist to protect rare or threatened species, many of which are plant species.

There are about 1,000 SSSIs in Wales, covering about 12% of the country. These vary from entire mountain ranges like Eryri, Berwyn, or the Brecon Beacons, to small single meadows, woods and stretches of coastline.

In 2020, a report from Natural Resources Wales concluded that around half the species featured on SSSIs were considered to be in ‘unknown’ condition.

Extinct

This report sparked the BSBI’s two-year Priority Plants on SSSIs in Wales project, which aims to hunt down those plants that hadn’t been recorded on SSSIs for at least 20 years.

Some of those species have been missing for a long time, and are considered likely to be extinct – for example, it’s been over 100 years since Griffith’s Hawkweed (Hieracium griffithii) was last seen at its only known location at Nant Ffrancon in Eryri, in north-west Wales.

The good news, though, is that some of those lost species have now been re-found.

Last year, the Awlwort (Subularia aquatica)4 was re-found in a lake in Carmarthenshire, at its southernmost British locality – over a century since its only previous record there in 1902.

 

 

Lily of the valley has been refound on Mynydd Du. Photo Stephen Marshall

 

Welsh Marsh-orchid was refound on Glaslyn. Credit_ Alastair Hotchkiss

 

The small white orchid is still missing. Photo Peter Stroh

 

Dwarf Willow was refound on on Arenig Fawr. Photo Alastair Hotchkiss

 

A close up of Dwarf Willow on Arenig Fawr. Photo Alastair Hotchkiss

 

Lily of the valley on Mynydd Du. Photo Stephen Marshall

Mr Hotchkiss and fellow botanists re-found three locations in Gwynedd for the tiniest tree in the world – the Dwarf Willow (Salix herbacea). In May, Dwarf Willow was re-found on a Welsh mountain where it hadn’t been recorded for over 50 years. At just a few centimetres in height, this is a species of mountain tops in Wales – a relic, clinging on for thousands of years since the last glacial retreat. It is also at home in the icy tundras of the Arctic, in Iceland and across Scandinavia.

This spring, botanist Stephen Marshall re-found the beautiful wild native Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis) on a limestone mountain in Breconshire, where it was last recorded 35 years ago.

In June, Welsh Marsh-orchids (Dactylorhiza purpurella var. cambrensis) were re-found on fields beside the Afon Glaslyn near Porthmadog, over 30 years since the last record in this area. This re-find was thanks to the kind permission of the owner, who accompanied the survey and was the first person to spot the orchids. The only other recent records in Wales for this orchid are from the sand dunes at two National Nature Reserves, Ynyslas in Cardiganshire and Newborough on Anglesey.

Optimism

Mr Hotchkiss said “These re-finds give us hope and optimism that nature can and does persist, and that a lot of these long-lost plants are still out there, just waiting to be re-discovered.

“There’s lots more to try and re-find this summer. Some species on the missing list are globally only known to occur in Wales, including the Welsh Eyebright (Euphrasia cambrica), a tiny plant of high mountain slopes, and various hawkweed species (Hieracium spp.).

“It’s not always plain sailing though: there are some plants that we haven’t been able to refind yet”. There is genuine concern over species like the Small-white Orchid (Pseudorchis albida) which seems to have disappeared from various locations where it used to grow. Attempts to re-find the rare Marsh Clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata) have also been unsuccessful at two of its former sites, and it is now only recently known from a handful of places in Eryri and Mynydd Preseli in Pembrokeshire.

He added: “Although a minority of plants may have been lost, the vast majority of special plants on protected sites in Wales are still there and might have been lost if their habitats were not protected in that way – so that’s a success story for nature conservation in Wales.

“Our community of Welsh botanists has played a huge role in providing the information that is so vital if we are going to protect these wild plants through the coming decades. Thanks to the Welsh Government’s Nature Networks Programme, the Priority Plants on SSSIs in Wales project can keep supporting this important work. The information and evidence that Welsh botanists gather will help conserve these wild plant species into the future.”