162
The Scarce Plants of Essex. Part 2.
brackish drainage dykes where cattle have trodden and broken up the ground. The Scarce Plants Atlas
account states that it requires the estuarine mud to actually dry out and be exposed to the air before the
dormant seed will germinate. In Essex it appears to have quite a critical set of requirements, the mud
has to be of just the right consistency, and preferably in a thermophilic spot, for example where a
shallow minor creek joins another shallow creek, and C. rubrum usually grows above and below it on
both drier and wetter mud. Furthermore, the seeds of the two taxa are identical, which makes one
wonder if the much more adaptable C. rubrum could be its autotetraploid. On Old Hall Marshes,
suitable habitat seems to move slightly up and down a given creek from year to year. The hot summers
of the last couple of decades have enabled it to get established earlier in the year, and it seems to be
increasing in abundance at the present time. Several of its former Essex sites, have however, been
destroyed by land drainage projects associated with conversion from pasture to arable. Its main
strongholds appear to be on Old Hall Marshes and on the Pitsea-Bowers Gifford-Leigh-Canvey marshes.
It probably also occurs extensively in the botanically neglected Barling-Wakering complex of marshes
and creeks, an area that would repay a systematic survey. A detailed analysis of its occurrence on Old
Hall Marshes is given in Tarpey (1999) and in this volume. Recorded from c.29 monads.
Post 1930 records:
TQ(51)57 586,793 West Thurrock, dried up lagoon nr the Power Station, a few plants on
southern margin of winter wet area. 24 October 1996. Tim Pyner.
TQ(51)58 52 ,81+ Rainham, Alan J Silverside, date? (Jermyn 1974).
TQ(51 )67 652,756/7 Tilbury, in Saltmarsh to the north east of the Fort, quite plentiful with
C. rubrum, Puccinellia fasciculata, P. distans and P. maritima. 11
September 1983, K J Adams et EFC.
672,758 &
672,760 &
674.767
E. Tilbury Marshes, abundant in brackish dyke, 23 June 1997. Tim
Pyner.
Vange & Pitsea Marshes, very extensive in winter flooded grazing
marsh, September/October 1996. Rodney Cole & Tim Pyner.
Bowers-Gifford Marshes, eastern wet mud margin of wide shallow
drain, plentiful with C. rubrum. 9 August 1998. Tim Pyner et EFC.
Bower-Gifford Marshes, shallow wet mud embay ment on south side
of major marsh drain, 9 August 1998. Tim Pyner et EFC.
Pitsea-Bowers Marsh, 17 September 1950. J E Lousley. Herb.BM.
TQ(51)78
72 ,86}
72 ,87}
73 ,86}
73 ,87}
743,868
746,869
74 ,87+
74 ,87 Pitsea Marshes, muddy areas, of ditch and stream margins, frequent.
13 October 1998. Tim Pyner.
74 ,88+ Pitsea Bowers Gifford Marshes, in several places, Stanley T Jermyn.
date? (Jermyn 1974).
767,835 Canvey Island, damp hollows nr Northwick Road, frequent in small
area. 26 October 1999. Tim Pyner.
777,847 Canvey Island, dried up dyke in grassland by the A130, frequent, 16
September 1990, Tim Pyner. Herb. STD.
TQ(51)88 82 ,85+ Leigh-Hadleigh Marshes, Frances Rose & Stanley T Jermyn,
date? (Jermyn 1974).
808,852 Hadleigh Marsh, dry saline area of borrow dyke, 1979. Gillian Barter.
82 ,85+ Two-tree Island, rare on Saltmarsh, 1985. Martin Rand (NCC files).
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)