During 2005 to 2007 the Botanical Cornwall Group is undertaking a project to inventory rare species of vascular plants in Cornwall and publish a Register of them. This will have the support of the local Records Centre (Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – ERCCIS), which will eventually publish the Register, and the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI), who through the local vice-county recorders will be organising the project with a small steering group of interested local botanists. The project has three phases.

The first phase has entailed finalising a short list of species to include and checking what records we have of them, and that the records are correct. Of course error checking will be ongoing through the project and as checking of sites progress, the species included may also. Species that will definitely be included will be those that have been seen since 1st January 1990 that are;

• Nationally Rare (species found in 1-15 hectads in Great Britain and Isle of Man)
• Nationally Scarce (species found in 16-100 hectads in Great Britain, Isle of Man and Channel Islands)
• Cornwall Rare (species found in 3 sites or less)
• Cornwall Scarce (species found in 4-10 sites)
• We will also be including a list of species considered ‘Cornwall Local’ (species found in 11-20 sites) as these may be the ones that need monitoring!

Following current criteria, native and archaeophyte species will be included as well as aliens, neophytes and hybrids that are of significance in Cornwall.

NOTE: During the project The Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain *(Cheffings & Farrell, 2005) was produced which assessed species not only on rarity but threat, which meant that several species not included in the first list of species chosen could be included as they are considered threatened or near threatened. Although the project is essentially producing a register of ‘Rare’ plants, it would be useful if these additional species are included, so that the one publication can cover all those species in Cornwall of local conservation concern.

The second phase, which has already been ongoing, has been checking sites to see whether the species are still present. Primarily these have been where the species chosen have not been recorded since 1990, but an updated record from any site will make the Register as up to date as possible. Rare Plant Register recording forms are available to recorders so that the records made can be logged accurately and also archived with the BSBI vice-county recorders, ERCCIS and the Threatened Plants Database (TPDB).

MANY THANKS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY TAKEN PART AND HAVE CHECKED RECORDS OF RARE OR THREATENED PLANTS FOR THE PROJECT

The third phase will be the production of the Register which should be ready for late 2007. The Register will be presented as a list of records (including, at least, location name, full grid ref, recorder details, population size), maps, photographs and brief comments on species where appropriate. Also included will be an appendix of Cornwall Local species, extinct species, an appendix of Cornwall Rare, Scarce or Local species that are common elsewhere in the British Isles and an appendix of Cornwall Rare or Cornwall Scarce species of the critical groups; Hieracium, Rubus, Taraxacum. Also included will be the near threatened or threatened species as outlined above.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP!

You can help by choosing

• an area, tetrad (2km x 2km) or
• hectad (10km x 10km) to survey for several species at once at certain times of the year, or
• one or more species to survey.

You will be provided with records for areas (local area, tetrad or hectad) or species that need to be re-found, and Rare Plant Register site record forms to record details of the site if the species is found.

Colin French has kindly prepared a new list of those species records that have not been seen since 1990 rather than all records that was sent before – we hope that this narrows down the species to look for in 2006. These are available from the co-ordinator below.

If you have any existing records for the species on the updated attached list please send them in!

If you would like to help please contact -
Ian Bennallick (Botanical Cornwall Group co-ordinator), c/o ERCCIS, Five Acres, Allet, Truro, TR4 9DJ. Tel 01872 240777 ext 244 or email ian@cornwt.demon.co.uk

*Cheffings, C.M. & Farrell, L. (Eds), Dines, T.D., Jones, R.A., Leach, S.J., McKean, D.R., Pearman, D.A., Preston, C.D., Rumsey, F.J., Taylor, I. 2005. The Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain. Species Status 7: 1-116. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough.