Huntingdonshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

Saxifraga granulata L.
Meadow Saxifrage
National Status: Not scarce, not threatened
County Status: Scarce (4 sites, 4 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Paxton Pits ? 2005 (JG)
Portholme SSSI TL235709 2001 (SS)
St Neots Common SSSI TL184611 2004 (RM)
Woodston, Nene Valley Railway (CP) TL174977 2009 (DB)
In addition to the above, there are additional populations at Ramsey Heights (TL248848) and
Monks Wood Experimental Station (TL201796) that have established as a result of the
sowing of wildflower seed. In the case of the former this was seed purchased from a
commercial grower while the latter involved ‘local’ seed.
Scandix pectin-veneris L.
Shepherd’s-needle
National Status: Critically Endangered, BAP
County Status: Rare (3 sites, 3 tetrads)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Abbotsley TL232561 2001 (PN)
Great Gransden TL282564 1999 (BS)
Monks Hardewick Farm, near TL218616 1997 (TW & SW)
Once abundant in eastern Britain, by the mid-1980’s it was very rare. It is susceptible to many
broad-spectrum agricultural herbicides. There are signs that it may have started to increase
again over recent years (Wilson & King, 2003), although it is possibly too soon to know this
for certain and it is still a rarity in Huntingdonshire.
Senecio paludosus L.
Fen Ragwort
National Status: Nationally Rare, Critically
Endangered, BAP, Schedule 8
County Status: Rare (1 site, 1 tetrad)
Site Grid Reference Last Record
Woodwalton Fen SSSI & SAC TL233849 2008 (DB)
Although once widespread in the fens of East Anglia, Senecio paludosus is currently known
as a native from one summer-dry ditch in arable land near Ely, Cambridgeshire (VC29). The
plant was discovered there in 1972 and is thought to have arisen from long-dormant seed. It
is a very long-lived perennial. Mature plants do not need a high summer water table, but
prefer areas that have a high winter water table or are periodically flooded. Young plants
require open areas in which to develop, but mature plants can compete successfully with tall
vegetation. In mainland Europe, S. paludosus is not a ditch plant and instead grows on 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
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