Conservationists to return rare plant to wild from brink of extinction

Forked Spleenwort is being taken back to Dartmoor by a Wiltshire charity

The Forked Spleenwort plant.
Author: Luke ReeveyPublished 12th Oct 2024

A highly-unusual rock-dwelling fern, which for the last three decades has been on the brink of extinction in the South of England, will be returned to Dartmoor this autumn.

Only a handful of Forked Spleenworts can be found in just two locations– one in Kent and one on the edge of Dartmoor National Park.

The plant is on the brink of extinction in southern England with just a tiny number of plants left on one rock face in Devon.

In 2022, while botanists from Wiltshire based Species Recovery Trust were surveying the rather populations in the Lake District, a semi-dried up plant was found on a footpath.

It had been kicked loose from a scree slope but on closer inspection revealed that it was still fruiting.

Fast forward two years and experts at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have managed to raise these spores to over 50 plants- roughly five times the numbers that currently exist in the South of England.

This autumn, a team of specialists from The Species Recovery Trust, Devon Wildlife Trust, Dartmoor National Park Authority and Natural England will return these plants to the wild in Dartmoor.

Dominic Price, Director of The Species Recovery Trust in Salisbury and project lead said, "This fern looks more lie a grass, it's a thin, splindly plant.

"It pretty much only lives on rocks and it's particularly adapted to very dry environments.

"We think, as a result of that and extremely warm summers, it's doing badly in the South of England and we're very close to losing it.

"It's only found in two locations- Devon and Kent- none of them are that suitable anymore.

"It's unable to move out of those locations, which is why we've decided to give it a bit of a helping hand.

"It's down to six or seven plants, but they're not picking up- we thought, at this rate, we only had a decade before it vanishes altogether.

"While we were surveying, we found a lose plant on the footpath- we think it got kicked off a slope by grazing cattle.

"It was covered in spores at the bottom of the leaves, and that's given us enough plants to now consider moving forward with an introduction program to put it in some new sites.

"The planting is going to be extremely challenging, often using minute fissures in a range of rock faces, scree slope and walls, and as this has never been tried before, this is new territory for rare plant conservation."

The site falls within Dartmoor National Park, and National Park Authority Ecologist Kerry White, added, "We welcome the opportunity to participate in this partnership project to bolster the population of this rare fern and hope that the sites we’ve identified can support a healthy population in the future."

Devon Wildlife Trust look after two of the sites where the plants are to be reintroduced.

Peter Burgess, their Director of Nature Recovery, will be playing a key role in monitoring the plants once the release has occurred- he said, "I've spent many weekend walks unsuccessfully exploring remote and rocky locations where populations of this very rare fern might still be found.

"We're thrilled to be working alongside expert botanists at the Species Recovery Trust, and providing new locations where we hope this plant can thrive and have a secure future."

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