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
An Oceanic Southern-temperate perennial species. Presumably a Neophyte in Britain, where it occurs on the Isles of Scilly, in Cornwall, Devon, Wales, the Channel Islands and rarely as an introduction elsewhere, though in areas where it has long been known it could well be native or at least an Archaeophyte.
Regional Distribution
Virtually all sites are to the west of a line from Wadebridge (SW97) to Polperro (SX25) with notable concentrations around Newquay (SW76), Hayle (SW53), St. Ives (SW54) and St. Austell (SX05). On the Isles of Scilly it is found on the inhabited and larger uninhabited islands. It is noticeably increasing in West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Habitat & Ecology
A long-lived perennial herb of roadside hedges, field hedges, quarries, waste places, railway embankments, and in dry bushy places on fixed dunes. It has also been found to be a short-lived colonist of some disturbed sites. In Scilly it is found in Bracken Pteridium aquilinum communities, hedgebanks, dunes, arable land, and disturbed areas.
Threats
Unknown.
Conservation
Many sites are not protected.
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.