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Flora locale is a national charity promoting the wise use of native flora to land management professionals, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and Defra.
Flora locale is a national charity which promotes the wise use and supply of native flora. Cast your mind back to when you last planted trees or wild flowers for a new hedge, woodland, memorial tree or wildflower grassland. What was the origin* of the plants used? If the project was in an urban park, school grounds or garden it may have been of little consequence. However, if you were planting in, or near the countryside, the origin of introduced plants could be of great importance.Flora locale is a national charity which promotes the wise use and supply of native flora. Liz Manley, Conservation and Development Manager for Flora locale explains further.
British native origin
Flowers, shrubs and trees are planted in their thousands
every year, along roads, around quarries and old landfill sites, in nature reserves
and parks and on farmland. Unfortunately, not all planting schemes in the countryside
are ecologically sound and do not use plants of British native origin.
Plants which originate from the continent, where the climate is different from our own, may be less frost hardy, flower at different times, or look different to our native plants. Consequently, pollinators and other dependant insects may be affected. In extreme cases, imported plants will fail to survive. One of the worst examples is from France where thousands of hectares of Maritime Pine plantation died during severe winters. All the affected trees were of Iberian origin, and not frost-hardy. The local-origin trees survived. France is now trying to obtain a ban on the import of Iberian Maritime Pine.
Garden plants may also threaten our native plants through hybridisation or competition posing a particular risk to small and fragmented populations of related wild species. For instance, the Lake District’s Wild Daffodils, so famously described by William Wordsworth, are being threatened through hybridisation by the vigorously growing garden varieties which are being extensively planted on road verges and parklands. The same is happening in other areas where the Wild Daffodil is naturally found, such as Yorkshire and Gloucestershire.
Even if native species are desired, generalist nurseries will often substitute with garden varieties. Examples are Swedish Whitebeam (instead of native Whitebeam, Sorbus aria), flowering cherry (instead of Wild Cherry, Prunus avium), variegated dogwood and multi-coloured garden primroses instead of native Primula species. Misunderstandings and unclear specifications when plants are purchased add to the confusion - it is a risk that agricultural or garden cultivars, or foreign imports (of the correct species), may be supplied when buyers fail to specify the species and origin of stock they require.
Help is at hand
Fortunately, help is now at hand, for those buying and planting
native flowers, shrubs and trees for the countryside, with several new publications
available from Flora locale. The booklet Guidelines for planting projects in
the countryside outlines some of the key considerations. The most important
is to protect and maintain any wild plants and habitats that are already present.
Second, if planting is needed, species should be selected that are appropriate
to the location and project objective and that complement the area’s natural
countryside character and local distinctiveness. In addition, if native species
of British native origin are required, these should be obtained from specialist
growers that can source-identify their stock. A list of native flora suppliers
is available at www.floralocale.org
The library on the Flora locale website contains a great deal of information. Technical information on wild flower grassland creation, restoration and management including advice on seed, plug plants, species choice and timings is alongside that related to woodland. Of particular interest is the information regarding the introduction of woodland wild flowers, such as bluebells and foxgloves, into new woods.
Liz Manley: Conservation and Development Manager, Flora locale
*Origin is the place in the wild from which the original seeds or plants were collected. This is not to be confused with provenance, which is often the location of the nursery where seeds are produced or plants grown.