Juncus pygmaeus - Pigmy Rush
Pygmy Rush, a Red Data Book species, is restricted in Britain to the Lizard Peninsula. Growing in winter-flooded tracks over serpentine and gabbro, it was once locally abundant and between 1956 and 1984, 22 sites were noted. By 1994 only three of these could be found and the rush was considered as highly endangered. Recently, however, plants have been seen at two of the old sites and an entirely new population has been discovered. It is clear that populations and sites vary from year to year, but it is also certain that population numbers are lower than they used to be, and that habitat conditions along some of the tracks have changed. There are two old records from an outlying site at Loe Pool. The most recent being lodged in the herbarium of Liverpool Museum (SW62M, 1951, J.E.Jousley).
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Source:
French, C.N., Murphy, R.J. & Atkinson, M. 1999. Flora of Cornwall. Wheal Seton Press, Camborne.