Cotoneaster horizontalis Decne., Wall Cotoneaster

Introduction, neophyte, a very rare garden escape, but certainly under-recorded.

1998; Northridge, R.H.; on wall near Model School, Enniskillen Town.

Bird-sown plants of this commonly grown, sub-shrub, with its distinctive arching, near-horizontal, herring-bone branches and numerous red berries undoubtedly occur in a number of other scattered dry soil locations in both urban and rural Fermanagh habitats. However, the Fermanagh Flora Database contains only two definite records: the one listed above plus a second found at Tedd Crossroads, Raw Td, 4 km NE of Irvinestown, on 9 September 2010, by RHN and HJN.

Until recently, RHN and the current author (RSF) have always tended to ignore these Cotoneasters, considering them rather uninteresting or even insignificant! We are not alone in this respect. The Cen Cat Fl Ir 2 lists just three VCs in the far SW & S with known records, N Kerry (H2), Mid Cork (H4) and E Cork (H5).

The Irish picture all changed in 2002 when Reynolds published her Cat Alien Pl Ir for she enumerated records from a further nine VCs scattered across the island, though not including Fermanagh. The species seeds freely and, apart from self-sown and bird-sown individuals, well-naturalised colonies may readily establish from garden waste or from throw-outs. In Co Waterford (H6), C. horizontalis was first recorded in 1983, and in his county Flora, Green (2008) has mapped around 35 tetrads where it now has been found. The majority of his sightings (all bird-sown) are on walls, but it also occurs on roadside banks, along disused railways and on rock faces.