Plantlife International

Plantlife’s project seeks to revive the fortunes of a suite of the most threatened plants of the Breckland landscape, focusing on nine UKBAP species which are all Breckland specialities - these include Field Wormwood, Fingered Speedwell, Grape-hyacinth and Red-tipped Cudweed.

The project will undertake micro-habitat management at 30 sites in the Breckland Important Plant Area in Norfolk and Suffolk, delivering trial habitat management research and site-based research of the ecology of individual species. It will seek to restore or expand 30 populations of the nine plant species, also providing advice and guidance to partner organisations managing 20 additional threatened Breckland plant populations.

With over 120 nationally rare and threatened plant species, Breckland is of international importance for its botanical diversity, with an array of open heathland and grassland habitats, its unique soils and dry ‘continental’ climate.The plant species to be targeted by the project have all seen significant population loss in the area since 1970 (up to 77% in the case of Field Wormwood) due to inappropriate land management (leading to the loss of open habitats that benefit plants), habitat fragmentation and loss of traditional means of seed dispersal (e.g. livestock grazing).

Despite Breckland’s multiple designations for nature conservation, the botanical interests have not, perhaps, received the conservation attention that they deserve. The project will, therefore, focus on the area’s rarer plants, maintaining and restoring existing and lost populations, and re-establishing viable links between these, contributing significantly to UKBAP Regional and Local targets.