Notes on Essex Specialities: 5: Sickle-leaved Hare's-ear Bupleurum falcatum L.
How long then has B. falcatum been in Essex? It would seem unlikely for such a showy plant to have
become established along the verges of a relatively busy road at Norton Heath much before 1831
without someone reporting it previously. Furthermore its persistence there must have been associated
with rigorous control of the local rabbit population, (as rabbits are very partial to the leaves), a practice
only relaxed subsequent to the recent myxomatosis epidemic. Rabbits pose the greatest threat to its
survival at the re-introduction site, and plants have survived grazing only where they are densely
intermingled with Bristly ox-tongue and Spear Thistles. The surviving introduced colonies are on the
top of two artificial mounds of raw chalky boulder clay that the Epping Forest Countrycare team have
now surrounded by rabbit-proof fencing, and the competing vegetation will have to be kept under
control manually. They are on the north side of the bypass at TL610045. Visitors are asked not to
collect seed from the site (prohibited under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 J,
anyone requiring seed should request some from the author who can supply garden derived seed in the
autumn.
The author is grateful to Dr. Peter Allen for sorting out the latest findings on the two Pleistocene sites.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)