Shropshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

43Cicuta virosasource of the Habberley Brook at UpperVessons, at SJ3802 (Whild & Lockton). This ispossibly the original source of the downstreampopulations, and it is tempting to imagineCircaea alpina growing in this locality at thetop of the Stiperstones range in the distant past.2109872 3 4 5 6 7 8Circaea x intermedia Ehrh.(C. alpina × lutetiana)Upland Enchanter’s-nightshadeNative. Rare.A hybrid between Enchanter’s-nightshadeC. lutetiana and Alpine Enchanter’s-nightshadeC. alpina, this species is often found growingin the absence of its parents, especially thelatter, which is very rare in Britain. UplandEnchanter’s-nightshade is found in wetwoodlands, particularly in Wales, the northwestof England and Scotland.It was first found in Shropshire by JamesCosmo Melvill, when he found plants growingby the side of the Rea Brook at Meole Brace(SJ4810) in 1915. After puzzling over itsidentification for a couple of years, he sentspecimens to the Botanical Exchange Clubwhere it was misidentified as C. alpina by E.S.Marshall and W.H. Pearsall. Melvill reluctantlyagreed to this determination.It was more than forty years later, in September1960, that Charles Sinker & Francis Rosediscovered the source of Melvill’s plants besidethe Habberley Brook, a tributary of the Rea, atEarl’s Hill (SJ4104). Here Circaea x intermediagrew in abundance in ancient W8 Fraxinusexcelsior woodland. It has been recorded manytimes since then, most recently by Lockton etal. in June 2004, when it was still widespreadbut perhaps less abundant than formerly. In1997 a third site was discovered near theCirsium acaule (L.) Scop.Dwarf ThistleNative. Rare.This is a small plant of short calcareousgrassland, largely confined to the south-east ofEngland. Although Sinker (1985) described itas occurring in ‘long-established colonies’ inShropshire, there are no records of it prior to1970 (except two highly dubious ones by G.H.Griffiths in 1870) and it appears to bespreading.Doris Pugh first recorded it in a field on theedge of Llanymynech Hill (SJ2721) in 1970.Although it disappeared from that site, it hassince been seen in several other locations onthe hill, most recently by D. Guest & S. Smithin 1997.In 1977 Cilla Raikes found it a field atKnowbury (SO5674), on the southern slopes ofTitterstone Clee, and it was seen by EllenHeywood-Waddington on a track side at CleeHill (SO6075) the same year. Since then it hasbeen recorded at Clee Hill by Trueman atSO5977 (1980) and by Bingham at SO6074(1990 & 1997). In the latter site there werethousands of plants.Audrey Ashwell found it in 1991 and 1992 atCold Hatton Heath (SJ6320), where it grew onsoil that had been dumped in a field.Rob Stokes discovered it in a field adjacent toStokes’s Barn (SO6099) on Wenlock Edge in1994, where it still was in 2003 (Whild,Lockton & Stokes). This brings the number ofcurrent sites in the county to four.Cirsium dissectum (L.) HillMeadow ThistleNative. Rare.The characteristic habitat for this species inShropshire seems to be on the edges of bogsand in wet meadows, often associated with themeres. The first records were by J.E. BowmanRare Plants of Shropshire 41