2024 County Report for Co. Armagh
John Faulkner
The main purpose of recording this year was to fill in any obvious gaps in the recent data on plant distribution in the county. ‘Gaps’ included key sites with few or no recent records, key species that had only been recorded near the start of the period if at all, and difficult-to-identify taxa that might have been missed or glossed over. In practical terms, these comprise a rather disparate set of objectives and anything likely to be achieved would be as much a gesture towards the evening-up of coverage as a full gap-filling exercise. An additional objective was to involve others in recording and identifying plants.
In pursuit of these objectives I arranged an informal programme of nine recording meetings throughout the county and invited any local botanists to take part – mostly members of BSBI or County Armagh Wildlife Society, although the meetings were not formally part of the programme of either body. Each meeting had one or more ‘lost’ species to look for, and usually several others that would be of interest to find or refind. For example, we went to Gosford Forest Park to look for Bird’s Nest Orchid (Neottia nidus-avis), and to Slieve Gullion in pursuit of Beech Fern (Phegopteris connectilis), Parsley Fern (Cryptogramma crispa) and Bog Orchid (Hammarbya paludosa). The visits were highly successful in two senses and a near total failure in another. The successful aspects were the social and educational ones, plus the recording of species that were not targets. There were 12 participants in total, and feedback suggested they found the events enjoyable and/or worthwhile. In contrast, we scarcely found any of the target species, the exceptions being a tiny quantity of Yellow Oatgrass (Trisetum flavescens) at Milford Cutting, and two spikes of Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera bifolia) at Drumcarn.
Outside of this programme, I had two river recording sessions by canoe with the assistance of Robert Rosell. In July, we paddled several kilometres upstream from Bannfoot, where the river is open with a margin of floating aquatics on either side of the channel, stopping to record at intervals. On a hot day in September, we repeated the process on the Backwater, up and downstream from Moy and into the lower reaches of the Callan. This was quite a contrast with the Upper Bann as the banks are high with tree cover, plunging immediately into deep water. The outcome was a vastly improved record of the aquatic flora of the stretches of river covered, not to mention the delightful peace and views of at least five kingfishers we enjoyed on the water. A further expedition by boat, for which I am grateful to Marcus Malley of the ABC Council, landed us on Coney Island Flat in Lough Neagh for the best part of an hour to record the flora there. This was the first botanical visit to this small island of under a hectare since 1991, and was important for the technical reason that it is in a tetrad fully within the county but otherwise consisting entirely of virtually plant-free open water, so contributing to the completion of the survey of the county for the Flora.
Finally, to round off the year, the vice-county played host to the BSBI’s Irish Autumn Conference, which took place at Oxford Island in October. Some of the focus of the conference was on the Lough Neagh flora, with interest aroused by the publicity in the media about blooms of ‘blue-green algae’. On the following day, a training session on aquatic plants was held at sites on the Co. Armagh shore and led by the inimitable Nick Stewart.
Overall, the total number of plant records entered onto the database for the year was about 5000. While this is fewer than in recent times, the targeting on key sites and nearly inaccessible plants meant that their contribution to science was at least as valuable.
Photo: Sagittaria sagittifolia (Arrowhead) and a floating carpet of Azolla filiculoides (Water Fern) on the Upper Bann.
