Rare Plant Register for Huntingdonshire - Botanical Society of the ...

Myosotis ramosissima Rochel
Changing Forget-me-not
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened County Status: Scarce (7 sites, 7 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Brampton Wood SSSI TL1870 (monad) 2002 (TW)
Conington ‘Dump’ TL201842 2009 (SL)
Holland Wood TL239786 2003 (TW & SW)
Huntingdon, Millfield Court TL233714 2011 (KW & LF)
Orton Pit SSSI, Jones’s Covert (CP) TL160939 2005 (NC)
Midloe Wood TL158647 2006 (TW)
St Neots Common SSSI, Lammas Meadow TL1860 1996 (TW)
A species of dry grassland, old mineral workings and the margins of railways.
Myosurus minimus L.
Mousetail
National Status: Vulnerable County Status: Rare (3 sites, 3 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Buckden, Taylors Lane TL193679 1996 (JG)
Godmanchester Eastside Common SSSI TL272716 1994 (LF)
Upwood Meadows SSSI TL251826 2009 (SW)
This species has probably declined as a result of field drainage, the surfacing of farm tracks,
the development of more competitive crop cultivars and the increased use of nitrogen-based
fertilisers. Declines in grazing levels may also have rendered some sites unsuitable (Wilson &
King, 2003); although it would be reasonable to assume that a soil seed bank would persist.
In 2008, a strong population reappeared at Upwood Meadows growing on one square metre
of bare ground associated with a cattle water trough, in 2009 it had established around all of
the site’s water troughs.
Myrica gale L.
Bog Myrtle
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened County Status: Rare (2 sites, 2 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Holme Fen SSSI TL209889 2008 (DB)
Woodwalton Fen SSSI & SAC TL228836
56
TL22918347
2009 (DB)
2010 (DB)
In Huntingdonshire this species is a relic of former bogs, occupying the remaining areas of
acid peat in fens which have been much cut-over (historically) for peat. It is restricted to small
areas of Holme and Woodwalton Fens, where it can form dense thickets (Wells, 2003).