Shropshire Botanical Society Newsletter - Botanical Society of the ...

Draba muralis, Wall Whitlowgrass, is one of the county’s rarest plants. It isnaturally an inhabitant of limestone cliffs in the north, but it occasionally crops upquite naturally on limestone walls throughout the country. For a while it grew on arailway line in Gobowen (O.M. Feilden, 1904 & 05), but its only recent site is atStevenshill, where it was found on an old wall by Hildred Bigwood in 1956. The mostrecent record was by Stan Turner in 1975, but it was still growing there in someabundance this year (SJ55830392, Lockton & Joumana Mobarak, 2 nd April 2012).Until this year Erophila majuscula,Hairy Whitlowgrass, had only beenrecorded once in Shropshire, in 1845,when it was collected by William Hind atPulverbatch (det. T.C.G. Rich, TCD).However, either it has been overlooked orthis was a very good year for it – possiblyboth, because it has been consistently wetand mild, and we have often searched forit often in the past. It first turned up atRabbit Warren, at the south end of theLong Mynd (SO39068754, Lockton &Mobarak, conf. Rich, 19 th March 2012) inU1b Rumex acetosella grassland and thenwas found at Abbot’s Castle Hill (22 ndMarch) and Haughmond Hill (Rich &Whild, 15 th April). It was also found atLlanymynech Rocks, just over the borderin Montgomeryshire, where it has neverbeen recorded before.Centunculus minimus, Chaffweed, is2only known in the county in the WyreForest and on Haughmond Hill (apart1from a single record of it in LilleshallQuarry by Frank Perring in 1974, which0might be in doubt as it wasn’t given inSinker’s Flora of 1985). This year it was9found in a new location in the Wyre, atBlackgraves Copse (SO74757858) by Ian8Hopkins, who had strayed over theboundary from Staffordshire. This is a7new tetrad for it.2 3 4 5 6 7 8Melica nutansAnother plant that was erroneouslyrecorded in the olden days but has now arrived in the county for real is GreaterLettuce, Lactuca virosa. It first appeared on the side of the A5 at Preston and UptonMagna in 2009 (both by Brian Laney) and now it has been found on a roundaboutnear Whitchurch (SJ550396) by John Swindells. John also found Senecio cineraria,Silver Ragwort, at Snailbeach (SJ37450227, 6 th August 2012). This is a commonhorticultural plant that has not previously been recorded outside gardens.432109872 3 4 5 6 7 8Centunculus minimus438