Britainís wild flowers are in trouble… Ten species have become extinct in the 61-year reign of HM The Queen but even that stark loss hides the scale of the problem. Plantlife’s report ‘Our Vanishing Flora’ reveals the rate of loss of flowers from over 50 counties across England, Scotland and Wales, covering more than half of the British land area. To walk in those fields, woods and moors of 1952 would be an eye-opener for today’s young Britons; it would bring home to them the scale of natural beauty that has been lost through the lifetimes of their parents and grandparents. Britainís wild flowers are indeed in trouble.
Wild native flowers are being lost at a rate of up to nearly one species per year per county, and the rate of loss is accelerating with no sign of slowing. The figures probably understate the seriousness of the situation but they paint a disturbing picture – a picture with the colour draining from it. The reports league table of loss was created using county floras and rare plant registers, recent reports and expertsí personal knowledge and shows that we are losing species at an alarming rate all over Britain.
The county of Sussex fares particularly badly, being placed fourth in the table for loss of species, with a loss-rate calculated at 0.78 per year; in complete contrast, Wiltshire has a loss rate of 0.08. For further details see: http://www.plantlife.org.uk/about_us/news_press/britainsvanishingflowers