Dig

Threatened flora

Among plants not before classified as at risk but now threatened are:

Ranunculus arvensis - corn buttercup (critically endangered). A very attractive annual buttercup with small yellow flowers, it came to Britain with Roman farmers.

Papaver argemone - prickly poppy (vulnerable). A small, brightly flowered poppy which has not yet made the jump to waysides and road verges as the common poppy has.

Silene noctiflora - night-flowering catchfly (vulnerable). Its creamy-white flowers are semi-closed during the day, but at night reopen fully and emit a strong scent to attract insects.

Astragalus danicus - purple milk-vetch (endangered). Found along the east coast from Scotland to Lincoln and East Anglia.

Euphrasia anglica - eyebright (endangered). Its tiny white flowers are blotched with yellow and purple like a bruised eye. Compresses and tinctures from it were used to treat many eye disorders.

Monotropa hypopitys - yellow bird's-nest (endangered). An odd-looking perennial herb that lives on dead and decaying plant material in the soil.

Polystichum lonchitis - holly fern (vulnerable). An evergreen alpine fern that is small but long-lived. Small populations in Wales and the Lake District; more frequent in the Scottish uplands and western Scotland.

Cuscuta epithymum - dodder (vulnerable). An annual, rootless, twining and scrambling herb which is a parasite, attaching itself to its host by small suckers that remove water and nutrients.

Gentianella campestris - field gentian (vulnerable). A biennial or annual herb with attractive, purply-blue flowers. It is locally common in northern England and Scotland, but absent from most of south and central Britain.

Labels: Herbs