National Plant Monitoring Scheme: Species lists and interactions
National Plant Monitoring Scheme: Species lists and interactions SARAH SHUTTLEWORTH
I
n my role as Volunteer Manager for the National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS), I was recently leading a training session for some of our volunteers. The location was a beautiful spot in Wiltshire, with excellent Dry Calcareous grassland habitat which supports some interesting invertebrates as well as some great plants. This was a perfect spot to set up a mock plot (5 × 5 metre quadrat) and record the species from the lists. A feature of the NPMS is that recording can be done at different levels, depending on the surveyor’s ID skills: there are 30 species for Dry Calcareous grassland at Indicator level and 23 at Wildflower level. We also covered additional species not on the fine habitat list for those wanting to record at Inventory level (that’s where you do a list of all the plants), but also to look at confusion species. Species of particular note included Filipendula vulgaris (Dropwort), which was abundant. Despite mostly having finished flowering, the volunteers managed to get their eye in, so they could identify the leaves, and even distinguish them from the very similar Sanguisorba minor (Salad Burnet) leaves. Other highlights included Campanula glomerata (Clustered Bellflower), Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell), Cirsium acaule (Dwarf Thistle), Linum catharticum (Fairy Flax), Scabiosa columbaria (Small Scabious) and Bromopsis erecta (Upright Brome). Many of these species are not only indicative of good quality calcareous habitat, but also have fascinating plant and animal interactions through the evolution of monophagous (eats only one type of food/species or genus) insects reliant on them. In many cases these species are from the family Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) including many leaf mining species. For example, Blackstonia perfoliata (Yellow-wort) is important for Stenoptilia sophodactylus the Dowdy Plume-moth, whose larvae mine into a basal leaf and then feed on the flower buds. Although
Dr Oli Pescott and NPMS volunteers at our recent quality assurance event. Sarah Shuttleworth
Filipendula vulgaris (Dropwort). Sarah Shuttleworth
widely distributed, it is a local species restricted to sparsely vegetated habitats that Blackstonia and Centaurium erythraea (Common Centaury) grow in abundance (UKmoths website, https://ukmoths.org. uk). Filipendula vulgaris (Dropwort) is important for the nationally scarce Stigmella filipendulae, known as the Dropwort Pigmy (https://westmidlandsmoths.co.uk). Pilosella officinarum (Mouse-ear Hawkweed) even has an aphid dependent on it, the Green Mouse-ear Hawkweed Aphid Aphis pilosellae, which lives under BSBI NEWS 148 | September 2021
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