Huntingdonshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

Ranunculus parviflorus L.
Small-flowered Buttercup
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened
County Status: Scarce (5 sites, 5 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Church End TL205825 2008 (DB)
Lady’s Wood Nature Reserve, edge of TL247825 1994 (PB)
Monks Wood, arable by entrance track TL206805 2009 (DB)
Portholme, British Gas yard at entrance to TL238713 2008 (SS)
Woodston, by Nene Valley Railway (CP) TL172976 2008 (DB)
This species is one of the few annual buttercups found in Britain. It is a plant of dry, open and
typically disturbed ground. While it seems to require situations with low competition from other
flora, it is also an opportunist and able to adapt to available water and nutrients (Stewart et al.
1994). The exceptionally strong colony present at Woodston is likely to be maintained by
three main factors, disturbance from rabbits, the physical conditions created and maintained
by the Nene Valley Railway and periodic cutting back of scrub to maintain the cyclepath.
Rosa rubiginosa L.
Sweet Briar
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened
County Status: Rare (3 sites, 3 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Norman Cross Pits TL16449105 2009 (DB)
Paxton Pits
TL196629
TL19326341
2009 (DB)
2009 (DB)
Woodston Pits Nature Reserve TL17399782 2009 (DB)
Very rare and at present no populations are known that can be definitively identified as native,
but the above locations are plausible and should be treated as native for the time being. This
species is now widely planted, e.g. by the A14 and at Crown Lakes Country Park, but these
bushes seem very robust and may not be of good native stock.
Rosa stylosa Desv.
Short-styled Field-rose
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened
County Status: Rare (3 sites, 4 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Aversley Wood SSSI TL163819 2008 (DB)
Littless Wood TL128681 2008 (DB)
Monks Wood SSSI
60
TL195797
TL197802
2009 (DB)
2008 (DB)
Upton Wood TL181795 2009 (DB)
While this species is undoubtedly overlooked and poorly recorded there is sufficient evidence
to suggest that it is an extremely scarce species in Huntingdonshire. It is a species of ancient