2022 County Report for Cumberland

Mike Porter, Phill Brown and Jeremy Roberts

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2022 - CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND
Our year began with another successful New Year Plant Hunt with 44 people taking part and 80 species being recorded, fewer than last year, probably due to autumn frosts. This was followed by our Snowdrop Hunt during January and February which brought in more than 400 records.
In March we held our Indoor Meeting at Gosling Sike near Carlisle, looking over the previous year and making plans for 2022. This was followed by 9 Field Meetings, spaced out through the spring and summer months in various parts of Cumbria, the last a combined meeting with the British Pteridological Society.
During the season we held a National Field Meeting to look at sedges at Tarn Moss and Eycott Hill, made some progress on the updating of the RPR for Cumbria, encouraged interest in the plants of Cumbria through our Facebook site, Cumbria Botany, which now has more than 700 members, produced three Newsletters and processed many records, some of them significant, via iRecord. As a result of field meetings and individual efforts, to date more than 26,000 new records have been entered in the DDb, roughly 11,000 from Cumberland and 15,000 from Westmorland.
Further items of particular interest include:
The discovery of a third Cumbrian site for Phelipanche purpurea (Yarrow Broomrape) at Workington Harbour by Roger Holme.
The finding of vast quantities of Callitriche palustris (Narrow-fruited Water-starwort) in the extensive muddy drawdown zone at Haweswater Reservoir, still the only confirmed site for the plant in England. More details elsewhere in this Newsletter.