Conservation News

Shropshire Botanical Society Newsletter - Spring 2000 - page 4

Brown Moss: This site receives the thumbs up for the management work that has taken place so far, including the tree felling that has encouraged the return of Eleogiton fluitans, Luronium natans and the new occurrence of Nitella flexilis. Damming of the quaking bog will be an interesting experiment to monitor - will we see the return of the sundew and the white sedge?

Golden Ragwort Award

Although Brown Moss is managed by Shropshire County Council, they still receive this issue's Golden Ragwort award for poor management; two years ago I was contacted with regard to Pole's Coppice and the adjacent farmland - what would be the optimal conservation management? I told them the most important species is the Greater Broomrape Orobanche rapum-genistae. This is a total parasite depending on its primary host, broom. However, the broom has subsequently been systematically cleared from all surrounding fields, and it is fortunate that there are populations of O. rapum-genistae surviving on marginal populations of broom on the edge of woodland of the reserve.

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