The Scarce Plants of Essex. Part 2.
All records:
TQ(51)50 562,010 18
TQ(51)79 719,982 18
TL(52)91 950,165 19
TL(52)80 808,082 19
Kelvedon Hatch, Great Myles ornamental fishing lake,
several large dense patches in the shallows at the western
end in between Grey Willows, with immature fruits.
September 1988. K J Adams et EFC.
Hanningfield Reservoir, along the edge of the concrete
causeway that cuts off the north west lagoon. Immature
fruited plants found in July 1988. Ripe material collected
on 4 October confirmed ssp. occidentalis. Tim Pyner.
Layer Breton, Abberton Reservoir, in shallow water in the
main reservoir, by concrete embankment cutting off a
small lagoon. July 1991. Tim Pyner.
Chelmer & Blackwater Canal, nr. Hoe Mill, 21 June
1998. Richard Lansdown.
Campanula patula L.
Essex status: Probably casual only.
Spreading bellflower
Spreading bellflower is a plant of warm sunny sites in open woodland or disturbed ground on sandy or
clayey mineral, neutral to mildly acidic soils. It was formerly widespread as a native plant right across
southern England and up into the Welsh borders. Today it is declining rapidly, and is virtually confined
to the Welsh borders. Baison recorded a plant in a meadow near Halstead c. 1800. Whilst this could
have been a relic from a native site it is equally likely to have been a casual or escape from cultivation.
Gibson (1862) says of the three old records 'its claim to be naturalized appears very slight'. No post
1930 Essex records.
TL(52)70 18 Near Danbury, garden escape, 1828. J.C. Harrison (Herbarium SRD).
18 Lt Baddow, in a hedge nr. Riffham Lodge, (c. 1800). Edward
Forster. (Gibson 1862).
TL(52)72+ 19 Near Halstead, in a meadow, c. 1800. Thomas Benson (Gibson 1862).
Carex divisa Hudson
Divided sedge
Essex status: Native, widespread but vulnerable to loss of grazing marshes.
A rhizomatous creeping, perennial sedge of depressions in brackish grassy places, and ditch margins,
on mineral soils near the sea, with a very similar national distribution to that of Hordeum marinum and
Bupleurum tenuissimum; from south Wales to the Severn and along the south coast from Cornwall
round to the Humber. Recorded from 89 hectads since 1970 nationally, lost from 63. The compact
pyramidal to ellipsoid inflorescence, much exceeded by its lowest bract, make this an easy sedge to
recognise. Apart from a concentration of sites along the Colne estuary, its Essex distribution is becoming
very scattered and vulnerable to coastal tourist developments, construction of new sea defences, and
conversion of grazing marshes to arable. It has been recorded from 86 monads in Essex. See map.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)