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. Submediterranean-Subatlantic plant. Widespread in East Anglia and Hampshire and the Channel Islands, and scattered elsewhere in southern England and Cornwall.
Regional Distribution
This, easily overlooked, plant was first discovered in 1988 at a holiday caravan park in Par (SX05). It has since spread to eighteen 1km squares across Cornwall. These sites are mainly car-parks, caravan sites, or tracks.
Habitat & Ecology
A plant of coastal compacted soils, especially car-parks that are surfaced with sand/small gravel and not tarmac. It appears to be using car tyres as its main vector of distribution.
Threats
None as it is rapidly spreading, but could be destroyed if the car-parks are hard surfaced.
00 Conservation
Most sites are unprotected.
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.