2024 County Report for East Cork

Finbarr Wallace, Edwina Cole

This year we had 10,570 records, duplicates excluded, in 116 monads over 11 hectads.

There were two native VC firsts, Myosotis ramosisima (Early Forget-me-not) and Parapholis strigosa (Hard grass) recorded in the Midleton area.

Our 2024 outing to Carrigtwohill had 12 people taking part. This added some alien VC firsts and a new hectad record for neophyte Althaea officinalis (Marsh-mallow), unrecorded for over 90 years in H5. Alien firsts included Centaurea jacea (Brown Knapweed), Oenothera cambrica (Small-flowered Evening-primrose), Oenothera × fallax (Intermediate Evening-primrose) Sanguisorba officinalis (Great Burnet) and Tragopogon porrifolius (Salsify), all probably from wildflower mix. Great Burnet is protected under the Flora Protection Order and although alien in this situation, the protection ostensibly still applies.

Other non-native VC firsts included Chaenostoma cordatum (Bacopa) and Verbena rigida (Slender Vervain), both garden escapes, and Drabella muralis (Wall Whitlow-grass) from Anne’s-Grove gardens. Salvia hispanica (Chia) was recorded on the edge of a maize field.

Hectad first natives included Asplenium marinum (Sea Spleenwort), Sagina maritima (Sea Pearlwort), Salicornia europaea s.s. (Common Glasswort), Alliaria petiolata (Garlic Mustard) and Solidago virgaurea (Goldenrod).

Hectad first aliens included 2 records for Selaginella kraussiana (Krauss’s Clubmoss) in W86 – one leading to the site of Trabolgan House, the other at nearby C. of I. St. Michael & All Angels.

Mentha pulegium (Pennyroyal) was re-found in W77 but 100s if not 1000s of flowering stems, versus “Two, tiny and discrete flowering populations (consisting of four and two plants)” described as “adventive” in 2000.