Cornish Biodiversity Network  -  Supporting Wildlife Recording

   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z restore

Cornish Red Data (2009)

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.

Scandix pecten-veneris - Shepherd's-needle



Range & Status

Archaeophyte. Eurosiberian Southern-temperate species. Now confined to southern

Britain, especially in a broad area from Bristol to East Anglia and Lincolnshire. It appears to have declined dramatically in much of Britain and Ireland outside of this core area.

Regional Distribution

In Cornwall it has always been rare and most of the sites were recorded before 1910 (46 1km squares); in seven since 1910; two since before 1922 and only at one site on the north coast at Porth Joke since 1967 (SW76). Here it is confined to a coastal Cornish Hedge. On the Isles of Scilly it was formerly a more widespread arable and bulb-field weed, but is now only found consistently in one suite of bulb-fields on St. Martin' s (SV91).

Habitat & Ecology

Now only in bulb-fields and one coastal Cornish Hedge.

Threats

The fields on St. Martin' s are likely to be put down to grass or other management changes. The Porth Joke site can be liable to be overgrown with coastal shrubs.

Conservation

Its Porth Joke site is maintained by the National Trust. It is unprotected on the Isles of Scilly.

Source:

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.



Cornish Biodiversity Network. 2017.