Shropshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

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Map of ShropshireThe area covered by this report is vice county 40, which is roughly (but not exactly) the same asthe modern county of Shropshire and the Borough of Telford & Wrekin. It occurs entirely withinthe 100km squares SJ and SO of the Ordnance Survey national grid. The area of the county is3,464 km 2 , making it the tenth largest of the 113 vice counties in Britain. It has a population of442,000 people, giving one of the lowest population densities in England. The main towns andrivers are shown on the map below.43SJ23SJ22R.DeeEllesmereOswestryR.PerryWhitchurchR.RodenR.TernMarket Drayton2R.VyrnwyShrewsbury10SJ20Rea BrookR.SevernTelford98SO29SO28Church StrettonBishops CastleR.CorveR.OnnyR.ClunBridgnorth7SO27LudlowR.TemeDowles Brook2 3 4 5 6 7 8Rare Plants of Shropshire 5
RecordersOur knowledge of the flora of Shropshire is theresult of nearly four centuries of work by thecounty’s botanists, recording species,collecting specimens and taking visitingexperts to see interesting places. The first rareplant records from the county were made in1632, when George Bowles (1604-1672)visited William Coote (1590-1640) at Chirburyand they found ‘Codded Arsmart’ Impatiensnoli-tangere at Marrington Dingle and GreatSundew Drosera anglica in the extensive bogssouth of The Mere, Ellesmere (Oswald 1985,1995). Both were additions to the British list.Edward Lhwyd (1660-1709) was the firstSalopian botanist of note, although he did notrecord any rare plants in the county, except theones he planted on his father’s estate atLlanforda. Littleton Brown (1699-1749) was afriend of Johann Dillenius (1684-1747) andSamuel Brewer (1670-1743), and he took themto see several interesting species during theirbrief stop in Shropshire on the way to Wales in1726.Several names stand out as particularlysignificant. Edward Williams (1762-1833) wasone of the great botanists of his generation,although he published very little and is almostunknown outside the county. He was the firstto find Six-stamened Waterwort Elatinehexandra and Red Pondweed Potamogetonalpinus in Britain. He also collected the typespecimen of the hybrid sedge Carex x fulva. Hisunpublished manuscript, which may have beenwritten in about 1800, was discovered byWilliam Leighton (1805-1889) in 1841, just ashis own Flora was going to print. Leightonmanaged to insert most of Williams’s recordseither into the body of the text or into hisextensive ‘additions and corrections’ section.Leighton’s transcription of Williams’smanuscript is still available to view atShrewsbury library.The proof of the quality and quantity ofWilliams’s records is that even now he ranks asthe most prolific recorder of rare plants in thecounty, if you discount those of us who havemade it our business to seek them out over thelast few years.The top 20 rare plant recordersNo. of records …species1. S.J. Whild 433 1032. A.J. Lockton 400 953. E. Williams 242 944. W.E. Beckwith 232 945. C. Walker 187 566. W.A. Leighton 150 757. W. Phillips 138 858. C.A. Sinker 139 719. J. Bingham 149 3110. A.K. Thorne 107 4411. R.M. Stokes 77 4912. P. Parker 84 3613. I.C. Trueman 77 4214. F.H. Perring 70 4915. T.P. Diamond 63 4516. G. Potts 68 3417. E.D. Pugh 72 2018. M.J. Wigginton 65 2419. R.A. Dawes 66 2020. E.M. Rutter 44 39William Leighton (1805-1889) recorded mostlybetween 1832 and 1841. He was a thoroughlyreliable and careful botanist, and his notes ondifficult genera such as Fumaria and Epipactismake interesting reading even today. His Flora,published in 1841, is still an invaluable sourceof information.None of the contributors to Leighton’s Floramake it into the top 20, although GeorgeJorden (1783-1871), William Penny Brookes(1809-1895) and Thomas Salwey (1791-1877)come close, with 37, 20 and 29 recordsrespectively.William Phillips (1822-1905) made asignificant contribution to the study of the floraof Shropshire in the 1870s, but he does notseem to have been a very original recorder. Heproduced the first list of ferns and fern alliesfor the county in 1877, mostly based on recordscollected by Leighton forty years earlier. Healso published a list of plants of theShrewsbury area in 1878. Leighton didapparently show him some of the plants in situ,but many of his records are obviously repeatsof ones in Leighton’s Flora.6Rare Plants of Shropshire
Page 1 and 2: Rare Plants ofShropshire3 rd Editio
Page 3 and 4: ContentsIntroduction ..............
Page 5: Europe and is apparently declining
Page 9 and 10: List of recorders & determinersMr G
Page 11 and 12: Recorders & determiners (cont.)Dr C
Page 13 and 14: and drainage by eliminating the low
Page 15 and 16: on the verge of extinction. Just on
Page 17 and 18: dense bracken and woodland, to whic
Page 19 and 20: Indicator Species (contd.)Huperzia
Page 21 and 22: Species AccountsFor each species, t
Page 23 and 24: Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.Orange Fo
Page 25 and 26: Arabis glabra L. (Bernh.)Tower must
Page 27 and 28: A record for Wildmoor Pool (SO4296)
Page 29 and 30: 43Calamagrostis canescenssince been
Page 31 and 32: new records for Acton Burnell (SJ53
Page 33 and 34: Carex acuta L.Slender Tufted-sedgeN
Page 35 and 36: & Welshpool Naturalists. A record f
Page 37 and 38: Carex limosa L.Bog-sedgeNative. Ext
Page 39 and 40: 1880. He described it as occurring
Page 41 and 42: Farm (SO4990) in 2003. It seems lik
Page 43 and 44: at the Mere, Ellesmere (SJ4034) and
Page 45 and 46: 4443210987Clinopodium ascendens2 3
Page 47 and 48: Serjeantson considered it to be nat
Page 49 and 50: Dianthus deltoides L.Maiden PinkNat
Page 51 and 52: Drosera anglica L.Great SundewNativ
Page 53 and 54: A lowland plant that occurs on the
Page 55 and 56: Epipactis palustris (L.) CrantzMars
Page 57 and 58:
Leighton). In 1916 J.B. Duncan also
Page 59 and 60:
Filipendula vulgaris MoenchDropwort
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simply ‘near Bridgnorth’ (SO719
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Leighton (1841) gives records for B
Page 65 and 66:
(SJ2621) and Blodwel Rocks (SJ2623)
Page 67 and 68:
and in Shropshire there are still n
Page 69 and 70:
oth introductions. George Jorden li
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the list of sites in 1977, and Walk
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1987 (R.A. Dawes conf. Wainwright);
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ase-rich clay and limestone chippin
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43210Legousia hybridaAlthough it is
Page 79 and 80:
Pool (John Bingham, SO4291, 1984),
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connected to the canals in about 18
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8243210987Lycopodium clavatum2 3 4
Page 85 and 86:
43210987Monotropa hypopitys2 3 4 5
Page 87 and 88:
Myriophyllum verticillatumNepeta ca
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In 1984 V.A. Banbury collected it i
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9043210987Orobanche rapum-genistae2
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to have been lost to succession as
Page 95 and 96:
Titterstone Clee (SO5977) in 1854.
Page 97 and 98:
It was Edward Williams who first di
Page 99 and 100:
Gordon in 1955. In other parts of t
Page 101 and 102:
Potamogeton gramineus L.Various-lea
Page 103 and 104:
in the county, which probably accou
Page 105 and 106:
at the south end of the mere. This
Page 107 and 108:
(1841) considered it to be ‘not u
Page 109 and 110:
Salvia verbenaca L.Wild ClaryArchae
Page 111 and 112:
Scheuchzeria palustris L.Rannoch-ru
Page 113 and 114:
[Selaginella selaginoides (L.) Link
Page 115 and 116:
Rocks and Llynclys Hill, where Sorb
Page 117 and 118:
Dorothy Evans and Joan Connell foun
Page 119 and 120:
43210987118Torilis nodosa2 3 4 5 6
Page 121 and 122:
432109Trollius europaeusLee Brockhu
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Vaccinium x intermedium Ruthe(Vacci
Page 125 and 126:
Wahlenbergia hederacea (L.) Rchb.Iv
Page 127 and 128:
ReferencesAikin, A. 1797. Journal o
Page 129:
Stace, C.A. 1997. New Flora of the
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Shropshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

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