2023 County Report for VC113b

Anne Haden

Jersey VCR 113

Nearly 4,000 records were made this year on the island.  We continued to run fortnightly evening meetings throughout the summer and weekly meetings on Thursday mornings. John Poland visited the island twice and identified plants such as Erophila glabrescens Glabrous Whitlowgrass and Festuca brevipila Hard Fescue. Then in October Richard Landsdown visited to look at sites where there are natural populations of Cyperus fuscus Brown Galingale. Unfortunately this rare plant has not been seen for three years and Richard gave us advice on maintenance of the site to encourage the Galingale to return.

We have been active in advising the Government of Jersey Environment Department on botanical matters.  We took part in producing a risk assessment of invasive plants and advising what plants could be used to plant on green roofs.  We also took part in habitat monitoring. Our initiative of raising Jersey wildflowers using seed collected from local plants and hence collecting seed to sell went from strength to strength.  Now people planting such things as wildlife gardens or pollinator patches are able to use local seed and not imported seed. A further project this year involved the raising of plug plants of Myosotis sicula Jersey Forget-me-not and Ornithopus pinnatus Orange Bird’s-foot and planting them back into their natural location to bulk up threatened populations.

A highlight during the year was that Ranunculus paludosus Jersey Buttercup flowered, it was last seen flowering in 2016.  Other notable finds were:

Galanthus woronowii Green Snowdrop, a single plant found by Sheila Mallett beside a reservoir.

Arisarum proboscideum Mousetailplant found on the roadside.