2024 County Report for Warwickshire

Anna Dudley

John & Monika Walton retired this year as the Vice County Recorders for Warwickshire after 13 years in the role, and we want to extend them a massive thanks for everything they have done, and for the kind offer of continued help.  John & Monika ran a final series of Flora Group meetings this year, including helping with a Bioblitz at Oakley Wood Nature Reserve and Coventry’s City Nature Challenge.  Their finds of county rare species for 2024 included Cerastium semidecandrum (little mouse-ear) at Draycote Water, Ranunculus parviflorus (small-flowered buttercup) at the Charterhouse in Coventry and Rumex pulcher (fiddle dock) near Stratford-upon-Avon.  More excitingly, growing next to a clump of R. pulcher they found the hybrid dock Rumex pulcher × sanguineus = R. × mixtus (verified by Geoffrey Kitchener), a county first record.

Over 12,000 records have been entered onto the DDb this year, although most were records from 2020 to 2023, as well as several historical records.  We have a backlog of records from 2024, as well lots of records on the recording apps, which we will try to sort as soon as possible after we get up to speed with the role.  We have also been contributing to the Warwickshire (administrative county!) Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

Next year we hope to update the county’s Rare Plant Register, or at least start the process!

Schizanthus pinnatus (poor-man’s-orchid)

A Schizanthus pinnatus (poor-man’s-orchid) was found in full flower in June by April Webb growing at the base of a wall in the High Street of Bidford-on-Avon in the south of the county.  This is the first record for the county.  It is noted there is only one record currently on the DDb, and this record is in Scotland (VC81).

Oenanthe fistulosa (tubular water-dropwort)

A new site for Oenanthe fistulosa (tubular water-dropwort) was recorded in north Warwickshire on a Local Wildlife Site survey within a surviving pocket of traditional floodplain meadow.  Only two records of this species were made in VC38 between 2010 and 2019, and this is the only post-2020 record for the county.

Paulownia tomentosa (foxglove tree)

A Paulownia tomentosa (foxglove tree) sapling was found by John Stephen growing at the base of a telegraph pole on a path in Warwick; a first record for VC38.  There are no mature trees visible nearby, so the source of the seed is unknown.