Cornish Biodiversity Network - Supporting Wildlife Recording
The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Native; an annual Mediterranean-Atlantic plant, extending north into the Channel Islands (Jersey) and The Lizard. It has also recently been found, presumably native, in South Devon.
Regional Distribution
Apart from one outlying record from near Gunwalloe (SW62), Long-headed Clover is
confined to the southern part of The Lizard (SW61 and SW71), where it is very localised. In total it has been recorded in only 11 1km squares, and only five since 1999.
Habitat & Ecology
A maritime plant, it is largely confined to The Lizard schists, where it grows in dry, shallow soils ' laden with rock fragments' on south-facing sloping grasslands either in coastal valleys or on bevelled cliffs that are fully exposed to spray-laden winds (Frost, 1966).
Threats
Long-headed Clover is threatened by the very invasive alien Hottentot Fig Carpobrotus edulis .
Conservation
Much of the southern part of The Lizard is SSSI and managed by the National Trust and Natural England.
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.