BSBINews - BSBI Archive - Botanical Society of the British Isles

Notes - Rare species at Barry Docks (v.cAl) / Triple trouble over Onobrychis identification 19
(Sea Clover), large patches of Trifolium
seabrum (Rough Clover), Elytrigia atheriea
(Sea Couch), Carex arenaria (Sand Sedge)
and Plantago eoronopus (Buck's-horn
Plantain), the latter being dominant over large
areas of the entrance track and harbour wall
track, where the ground is stony. Catapodium
maritimum (Sea Fern-grass) grew along the
harbour wall track and in the shade of some
rocks and concrete blocks.
Two other interesting national rarities have
been found by Sharon Pilkington elsewhere in
Barry Docks.
Triple trouble over Onobrychis identification
ERIC J. CLEMENT, 54 Anglesey Road, Gosport, Hampshire, PO 12 2EQ
The first record of the Onobryehis vieiifolia
Scop. aggregate in Britain is to be found in
John Gerard's The Herball : 1064 (1597). He
describes it as "Onobryehis sive Caput-Gallinaeeum,
upon Barton Hill, fower miles from
Lewton in Bedfordshire on both sides of the
hill". Also here (p.1062) was Astragalus
danieus (Purple Milk-vetch). To quote such
an obscure locality, it was clearly an unusual
find, and not part of a farmer's crop.
C.Abbott, in Flora Bedfordiensis (1798), still
regarded it as rare. Much later, J.GDony's
Flora of Bedfordshire (1953) found it, as an
escape, as "common", but for the "native
form", just four localities are given. Similarly
C.Merrett, in Pinax rerum naturalium Britannieum
(1666), wrote: "In some mountainous
parts of Surrey, plentifully".
The cultivated strain was introduced from
France into England in c.1650, under the
French name 'St Foyn', which quickly
corrupted into 'Saintfoin', and finally
'Sainfoin'. Can Margot Souchier provide us
with some early, precise literature references
for both countries? I notice that J.E.Smith
remarks in The English Flora (ed. 2), 3: 293
(1829) that the name 'Cock's-head' "by which
it was before known as a native of England is
become obsolete", giving way to the cropplant
name "Saint-foin".
This historical record was (unfairly) summarised
in Stace's New flora (ed. 2): 405 (1997)
as: "Possibly native". Surprisingly, the
"native form" never attracted a scientific name
in Britain (and hence went largely un-recorded)
until 2009, when P.D.Sell and G.Murrell's
Flora 3: 38-39 provided us with no less than
three subspecies of 0. viciifolia, two of them
alien. As few members can afford the work
(publisher, please note!), I will quote their key
(in a modified, trichotomous format):
Stems robust, ± erect; lflets 15-35 x 4-8mm,
oblong to elliptic-oblong; corolla 12-
16mm. Hay crop relicts. - ssp. vieiifolia
Stems slender, decumbent or ascending;
lflets 10-30 x 2-7mm, linear-oblong;
corolla 1O-12mm. Wild flower mixes.
- ssp. deeumbens (Jord.) P.D.Sell
Stems slender, prostrate; lflets 5-15 x 2-
5mm, linear-oblong; corolla 8-12mm.
Native of broken chalk turf.
-ssp. eoUina (Jord.) PD.Sell
The lack of discrete characters in the key is
typical of many Onobryehis taxa in Eurasia.
But, maybe, more careful field observations
may reveal other differences. I strongly
suspect that ssp. viciifolia has a chromosome
number of 2n=28, whereas the other two have
2n=14. If so, this could show up as minute
differences in anther, pollen and stomata sizes.
Continental literature suggests that the crop
plant can be separated from the other two by
possessing leaflets becoming ± flat (not
persistently V-shaped), with their tips
minutely mucronate (not ± acuminate), inflorescence
before flowering long-ovoid (not
fusiform), peduncles 1-2 x the subtending leaf
(not 2-3 x) and fruit 5-8mm, with 6-8 marginal
teeth of 0-1mm length (not 4-6mm, with 4-6
marginal teeth of 0.5-2mm length). Other
identification characters may exist in tiny
differences in relative petal lengths (the standard,
the near-obsolete wings and the keel), and
even the stance of the petals (the standard is
more strongly rolled backwards in ssp. viciifolia?).
Flower colour reports are conflicting. I