Somerset Rare Plants Group

Diligent searching in the south and west of the county (VC5) has led to the rediscovery of two plants previously thought to be lost (just mislaid as it turns out). Simon Leach (Joint VCR for VC5) found a single plant of Early Gentian (Gentianella amarella subsp. anglica) at Thurlbear Wood, the first VC5 sighting since 2006, which he was delighted to be able to show members of Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society during their recent field meeting. Despite a thorough search during the meeting, only the one tiny plant was found, but it may be worth looking again at this time of year. Meanwhile, Ian Green, co-author of The Atlas Flora of Somerset, rediscovered Mountain Pansy (Viola lutea) on Exmoor, not seen since 1999. A photo of this species adorns the cover of the flora so it is brilliant news that it is not lost after all.  The Rare Plant Register has been updated accordingly.

The SRPG newsletter for 2021 has now been published. It follows a standard format with the chairman’s review, reports on all our meetings last year, a number of reports on projects we have carried out and other botanical subjects, and a summary of interesting plant records in our two vice-counties. Many thanks to our new newsletter editor Karen Andrews.

A corrected recording card aligned with Stace Edition 4 is now available here. This replaces the one issued in August 2021. The new cards have also been printed on yellow card and can be obtained from Helena Crouch.

This month we have five new species accounts in the Rare Plant Register. These are all plants that are near threatened across England but are fortunately not defined as rare or scarce in Somerset. They are: Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), Marsh St John’s-wort (Hypericum elodes), Ragged-robin (Silene flos-cuculi), Heath Speedwell (Veronica officinalis), and Marsh Speedwell (Veronica scutellata).

Members were able to brush up their skills in identifying winter twigs at the recent meeting near Taunton. The report is available on the Meeting Reports page. Now updated with minor corrections.

New species accounts for Crambe maritima (Sea-kale), Hieracium nemophilum (Grassland Hawkweed), Potamogeton coloratus (Fen Pondweed), and Potamogeton nodosus (Loddon Pondweed) are now available in the Somerset Rare Plant Register. The accounts for Equisetum variegatum (Variegated Horsetail), Hieracium subamplifolium (Balloon-leaved Hawkweed), and Limosella aquatica (Mudwort) have been updated.

Due to the storm warnings today and possible transport or other disruption tomorrow the SRPG field meeting tomorrow, Saturday 19th February, has been postponed. All those who booked have been informed by email. The meeting will now take place one week later on Saturday 26th February. Please contact the meeting leader  simonleach@phonecoop.coop if you have any questions.

There has been some re-arrangement of the menus which hopefully will make things easier to find. The newsletters can now be accessed from the top-level menu. We are working on an index to the newsletters which will help with searching for useful information. The former Publications section is now “Somerset Botany” and includes a Help with ID section (containing the old Articles and Presentations). We hope to add a History (of Somerset botany) section here in due course. There is a new section on the work of our Dandelion enthusiasts under Activities > Projects.

Our programme of meetings for 2022 is now available under the Activities menu, or you can download it in printable form here.

Phenology – or the study of the timing of natural phenomena – has been in the news this week with The Guardian reporting “Flowers arriving a month early in UK as climate heats up”. This is based on the dataset created by the Nature’s Calendar project run by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology. The underlying paper published by the Royal Society is here. The lead author, Prof Ulf Büntgen has also been talking about it on this week’s Inside Science on Radio 4.

Moving from the national to the local picture, Simon has kindly put together a report on last year’s First Flowering project. You can find a link to it at the end of the First Flowering page.