Plant Conservation in Ireland

National Red Data Books

The Irish Red Data Book 1: Vascular Plants. T.G.F. Curtis & H.N. McGough. 1988. Pp. 169. Stationery Office, Dublin. Uses the pre-1994 IUCN categories for degree of threat.

See also: Red Data Books of Britain and Ireland: Lichens. N.F. Stewart & J.M. Church. 1996. JNCC, Peterborough, UK. Red Data Books of Britain and Ireland: Stoneworts. N.F. Stewart & J.M. Church. 1992. JNCC, Peterborough, UK.

Floras

An Irish Flora, 7th Ed. D.A. Webb, J. Parnell & D. Doogue. 1996. Pp. 337. Dundalgen Press, Dundalk, Ireland.

The key work is the one-volume flora, New Flora of the British Isles. C. Stace. 1997. 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press.

As in the United Kingdom, more detailed plant records are outlined in County Floras, e.g. Flora of the Dublin Area (1998).

Flora of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 5. Butomaceae-Orchidaceae. P. Sell & G. Murrell. 1997. Cambridge University Press. 2nd volume due end 2003.

New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. C.D. Preston, D.A. Pearman & T. D. Dines (eds). 2002. Pp. 910. Oxford University Press. Revision of 1962 atlas, with 2412 dot maps; additional accounts of 942 aliens on accompanying CD.

The Moss Flora of Britain & Ireland. A.J.E Smith. 1978. Cambridge University Press (2nd ed due shortly).

The Liverworts of Britain & Ireland. A.J.E. Smith. 1990. Cambridge University Press.

The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles. J. A. Paton. Harley Books. 1999.

The Lichen Flora of Great Britain & Ireland. O.W. Purvis et al. (eds). 1992. Natural History Museum, London.

The Freshwater Algal Flora of the British Isles. D.M. John, B.A. Whitton & A.J. Brook (eds). Cambridge University Press. Pp. 702. 2002. (Treats c.1700 species out of an estimated 5000 to 20,000.)

Recent reviews on the status of all groups of plants and fungi are included in: The changing wildlife of Great Britain and Ireland. D.L. Hawksworth (Ed.). 2001. Pp. 454. Systematics Association special vol. ser. 62. Taylor & Francis, London. (Flowering plants, T.C.G. Rich (pp.23-49), ferns & allied plants, C.N. Page (pp. 50-77), mosses, liverworts & hornworts, A.J.E. Smith (pp. 78-102), larger fungi, R. Watling (pp. 103-113), microscopic fungi, P.F. Cannon et al. (pp. 114-125), and lichens, B.J. Coppins et al. (pp.126-147)).

Vegetation

Over much of the country agricultural land, moorland and bog. Most of the original broadleaved deciduous woodland destroyed; what remains consists mostly of semi-natural oakwoods with birch and holly. Plantations of pine, spruce and larch now cover c. 5% of the country. Extensive areas of heath and heathy grassland on mountains near the coast. The rocky limestone grasslands of the Burren Region of Co. Clare are of special interest, as are the raised bogs; the latter now under threat. (Paragraph reproduced with permission from Davis, S.D. et al. (1986). Plants in Danger: What do we know? IUCN, Gland, Switzerland).

Plant Conservation Programmes

The National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin was initiating stakeholder meetings to develop a National Strategy for Plant Conservation of Ireland. The draft strategy comprises a set of 16 targets modelled on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. For detailed information visit the National Botanic Gardens homepage, which also acts as focal point and clearing house mechanism in implementing the strategy.

A gene and seed bank is housed at Trinity College Botanic Gardens, Dartry, Dublin, which was set up as a co-operative venture between National Parks & Wildlife, Trinity College Botanic Gardens and the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust, with funding from the Heritage Council.

Recovery plans have been initiated for five threatened plant species, involving relocation experiments and reintroduction. These are Trifolium subterraneum, Inula salicina, Asparagus officinalis ssp. prostratus, Crambe maritima and Gymnocarpium robertianum. Participants are National Parks & Wildlife and Trinity College, Dublin.

For the populations of species listed on the Bern Convention and on Annex 2 of the EU Habitats Directive, and which occur in Ireland, systematic populations censuses have been carried out. The species concerned are Trichomanes speciosum, Saxifraga hirculus, Najas flexilis, Drepanocladus vernicosus and Petalophyllum ralfsii. Recovery plans are only seen as appropriate for Saxifraga hirculus.

Projects on the conservation of land-races of crops are being carried out by the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust, the Dept of Agriculture of Trinity College, Dublin, and Irish Seed Savers.

Four ongoing projects are investigating the ecology and genetics of threatened Irish plants with the aim of producing conservation plans for Scirpus triqueter, Asparagus officinalis ssp. prostratus, Puccinellia fasciculata and a suite of species in the Barrow River valley, the most important of which are Colchicum autumnale and Allium oleraceum. These are being carried out by National Parks & Wildlife, the Dept of Life Sciences, University of Limerick, the Dept of Botany, National University at Dublin, and the School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin.

National Parks & Wildlife have been conducting systematic population surveys of all the rare and threatened Irish flora and to date all the counties of southern Ireland have been done as well as Donegal in the north-west. There are continuing surveys planned for 1999 and beyond.

The Sherkin Island Marine Station is surveying and protecting the plants of Sherkin Island, Co Cork, and Roaringwater Bay. A flora of Sherkin Island was produced in 1997, edited by John Akeroyd, covering some 592 species, a very large proportion of the Irish flora for so small an island.

PlantNetwork (formerly PlantNet), the Plant Collections Network of Britain and Ireland, promotes the value and use of British and Irish plant collections. It has over 100 members, including most of the major botanic gardens and is currently concentrating on implementing target 8 (ex situ conservation) of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

Key Institutions

National Parks & Wildlife Service, 7 Ely Place, Dublin 2. (The NWPS is part of the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government and manages the Irish State's nature conservation responsibilities under National and European law.)

National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

Trinity College Botanic Garden, Palmerston Park, Dartry, Dublin 6.

Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI), The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK. [British Isles includes both Britain and Ireland].

Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust (Genetic Heritage Ireland), c/o Trinity College Botanic Gardens, Palmerston Park, Dartry, Dublin 6.

Irish Seed Savers Association, Capparoe, Scariff, Co. Clare.

Sherkin Island Marine Station, Sherkin Island, Co. Cork.

Friends of the Earth, 9 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2.

Acknowledgement

Based on material prepared by Hugh Synge for the Council of Europe, 1999-2000, with information and help from Tom Curtis, head of threatened plants in Ireland. Help is also acknowledged from Dr Tim Rich. Last updated February 2006.