2024 County Report for Derbyshire

Dr Alan Willmot

As the Derbyshire Flora Group we organised our regular programme of eight one-day field meetings throughout the county. These attracted between 8 and 12 individuals per meeting. The aim of these visits was to improve the identification abilities of members and collect records for the DDb. These trips along with the recording of individual members and others added some 31,000 records to the DDb of which about 20,000 were for 2024. These records included very few new native species for the county though there were numerous records for introduced plants. Examples of new introduced species are Hybrid Plume-poppy (Macleaya × kewensis) found by M Lacey new Renishaw; and Orange-peel Clematis (Clematis tangutica) found on a Flora Group meeting near Codnorpark Reservoir. Possible new native taxa include a hybrid dock (Rumex × ruhmeri) and a hybrid grass (X Festulolium fredericii). Other notable records included only the second county record for Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae); and only the fourth county record for Stone Parsley (Sison amomum) since around 1950. One intriguing record, which might be native or introduced, was Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) in a pond at Whitwell Wood. This was found well-established but in a pond which had only been created 30 years ago and where it was not known to have been introduced.

Consideration is currently being given to publishing a supplement to our Flora of Derbyshire which was published in 2015. The aim of this would be to produce an account of all new taxa found in the county since the original publication.