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

margins of rivers and lakes in mixed fen communities, usually in the floodplains of large
rivers. In such situations the principle agent of dispersal appears to be flooding, which breaks
off root fragments and carries them downstream to develop in open areas on alluvial deposits.
Its rarity in the UK may be due to the fact that the large complexes of water bodies that once
occurred in the Fens are gone and rivers no longer flood in a natural manner. In 1992, fifty
1 year old plants were introduced into Woodwalton Fen as part of English Nature’s Species
Recovery Programme. The vegetation around the stand is cut annually and the plants
themselves are cut every three years or so. The plants that remain have established well and
flower regularly, but no seedlings have yet been produced (Palmer, 2006b).
Senecio sylvaticus L.
Heath Groundsel
National Status: Not scarce, Not threatened County Status: Rare (3 sites, 3 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Bevill’s Wood TL203792 1997 (BD & JaC)
Holme Fen SSSI:
Caldecote Fen
Jackson’s Covert
Woodwalton Fen SSSI & SAC:
Compartment 67
Compartment 73
74
TL200895
TL217886
TL229839 (centroid)
TL224838 (centroid)
2008 (NC)
2009 (DB)
2008 (MM)
2008 (MM)
A rare, but locally abundant after disturbance, species of a few fen and woodland sites where
it grows on peat and other soils subject to surface acidification.
Serratula tinctoria L.
Saw-wort
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened County Status: Scarce (5 sites, 5 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Brampton Racecourse SSSI TL2072 2008 (LF & NC)
Calpher Wood, northern edge TL138699 2002 (BD)
Great Stukeley Railway Cutting SSSI TL23297596 2010 (TC)
RAF Molesworth County Wildlife Site TL067773 1996 (TW)
Upwood Meadows SSSI, Bentley Meadow TL2582 2011 (DB)
This species is restricted in Huntingdonshire to a few ancient base-rich meadows, and similar
grasslands, on the boulder clay.