Pulsatilla vulgaris (L.) Mill. - Plantlife

2 Distribution and current status
2.1 World
Pulsatilla vulgaris subsp. vulgaris is endemic to Western and Central Europe and is not known
to have been introduced to other parts of the world.
2.2 Europe
Pulsatilla vulgaris belongs to the European Temperate element (Preston & Hill, 1997) with the
core of its distribution in the lowlands of western and central Europe (Fig. 2).
Its current status in Europe is given in Table 1. France appears to be the stronghold for the
plant in Europe and consequently it was not listed as a priority species for conservation in the
most recent assessment of the French flora (unlike P. vernalis; Olivier et al., 1995). In
comparison it appears to be threatened throughout the rest of its range. In Denmark,
Germany and Southern Sweden it is still relatively widespread, but appears to have declined,
especially in Sweden, where it is now classified as Vulnerable using IUCN threat criteria (A2ac;
Gärdenfors, 2010), and Germany, where it’s populations are now small and highly fragmented
(Hensen et al., 2005). Similar trends have been reported for Austria, where only around 2000
plants now survive in 23 sites (Franz, 2005), and Switzerland where it is very rare (Pfeifer et
al., 2002) and classed as Endangered under IUCN threat criteria (Moser et al., 2002). In
Belgium it is confined to two small areas in the southern province of Wallonia, where its
habitat (limestone grassland) is under pressure from extensive tree planting (Quentin Groom,
pers. comm.). In Luxembourg it is classified as Endangered under IUCN criteria having
declined from 28 to 5 localities with population sizes now ranging from two to more than 7000
genets (Colling, 2005). It appears to be extinct in Finland, where it has not been seen since
the 1930s (Rassi et al., 2001) and Holland. It’s status in Poland is unknown although recent
maps (e.g. Fig. 2) show it to be very rare. Recent records for Norway all appear to be of
casual escapes (Jonsell, 2001).
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