Shropshire - Botanical Society of the British Isles

William Beckwith (1844-1892), by contrast,was independent and thorough. His work waspublished in the Journal of Botany in threeissues in the 1880s, and includes manysignificant new finds. Beckwith was originallyan ornithologist, but he took on botanicalresponsibilities at a time when there were fewactive in this field in Shropshire.Thomas Diamond (1839-1910) published hisFlora of Oswestry in 1891 but it contains few,if any, of his own records. It is a compilation ofwork by local botanists, the most significant ofwhom was Oswald Moseley Feilden (1837-1924). Unfortunately, the names of the originalrecorders are rarely given so most are creditedhere to Diamond himself.The 1890s and 1900s was a period ofunprecedented activity. William PhillipsHamilton (1842-1910) and William HuntPainter (1835-1910) were perhaps the mosttalented botanists of the time, and the countyalso received visits from such luminaries asAugustin Ley (1842-1911) and GeorgeClaridge Druce (1850-1932). A committee ledby Hamilton got as far as producing a draftFlora by 1913, but it was never published, andthe manuscript disappeared from ShrewsburyLibrary in the 1980s. Many of the records fromthat period are therefore lost.The early decades of the 20 th century weredominated by James Cosmo Melvill (1845-1929) and George Potts (1866-1945) who bothenjoyed many years of recording. Pottscontinued to contribute for 41 years, makinghim one of the county’s most prolific botanists.Edward Rutter (1890-1963) retired toShropshire in 1949, at a time when botany wasat a low ebb. His main contribution was thepublication of a Checklist, in collaborationwith Llewelyn Cyril Lloyd (1905-1968) in1957.Charles Sinker moved to Shropshire in the late1950s to work at the Field Studies Council, andwas largely responsible for introducing theconcept of ecology to the county. His Floraproject was established in 1973 and led topublication of the Ecological Flora in 1985. Itcontains over 100,000 records collected by alarge team of voluntary recorders. Species wererecorded simply by 10km square if they werevery common (A species); by tetrad if theywere only moderately common (B species); orin full detail if they were perceived to be rare(C species).Most of the records in Sinker’s Flora arereliable, although there appear to be a fewspecies that were perhaps over-recorded(Greater Burdock Arctium lappa and OrangeFoxtail Alopecurus aequalis spring to mind).Despite considerable variation in the expertiseof the recorders and the thoroughness withwhich they worked their squares, the end resultis remarkably even coverage, geographicallyand taxonomically, which provides a veryaccurate baseline against which to measurefuture changes in the distribution of species.Among the most reliable and prolific recordersin Sinker’s Flora were Franklyn Perring (1927-2003), Doris Pugh (1910-1985), JohnBingham, Chris Walker, Pat Parker and IanTrueman.Martin Wigginton led a team from the NatureConservancy who surveyed several of themeres in 1979. Because individuals were notnamed, all the records are in Wigginton’sname. It is interesting to note that a singleseason’s recording can still earn a place in thetop 20.Since 1985 the Flora Group, which laterbecame the Botanical Society, has continued tosurvey the county and collect records. IanTrueman was the county recorder from 1976 to1997, when Sarah Whild took on the rôle.Other currently active recorders in the top 20include Kate Thorne, John Bingham, RobStokes and Ruth Dawes. A full list of allcontributors is given on the following pages.Rare Plants of Shropshire 7