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Hieracium basalticola Pugsley

Account Summary

Native, Irish endemic, very rare.

1956; MCM & D; cliffs north of Glencreawan Lough, Tiranagher More Td, overlooking Lower Lough Erne.

In the 1975 Revised Typescript Flora, there are two undated records found by R.D. Meikle and co-workers during their 1945-57 survey, which were subsequently determined by P.D. Sell. The second site is listed simply as, "scarps west of Shean North", which the current author (RSF) and RHN interpret as the western end of the cliffs marked as Pollaphouca on the modern 1:25000 map. The hectad representing these two records appears in the 'Critical Atlas' (Perring & Sell 1968, Map 558/1.72, p. 93). T.C.G. Rich visited Fermanagh on 4 July 2007 and refound "abundant" H. basalticola on the cliffs at Tiranagher More, and also a few plants in stony flushes on a shale bank on the moorland above the cliff. At the latter site (GR H025569), it grew alongside Pinguicula vulgaris (Common Butterwort), an unusual habitat for H. basalticola, which usually occurs among calcicolous grassland species (Rich et al. 2009). A voucher of this collection is in BEL (Accession Number H48831) and D. McCosh confirmed the determination in 2008.

Another of the Rev S.A. Brenan's vouchers in BEL from the Marble Arch (Accession Number H7338) dated July 1872 is labelled H. pallidum Fries. It appears that Brenan made the identification himself and that no recognised hawkweed expert examined the voucher then or since. However, in 2008 D. McCosh examined it, and he thinks this specimen could be H. basalticola (P. Hackney, pers. comm., July 2008). If McCosh's verdict was confirmed, this would become the first county record.

H. basalticola is an Irish endemic microspecies, which replaces H. dicella P.D. Sell & C. West, the latter a quite widespread if sometimes scarce and local plant in Britain. H. basalticola is a plant of very open, short-growing vegetation on ledges on limestone and basalt cliffs out of reach of grazing animals. It is recorded from counties Clare (H9) northwards through W Galway (H16) to Sligo (H28), Leitrim (H29), to Fermanagh (H33) and eastwards from W Donegal (H34), Londonderry (H40), Antrim (H39) to Down (H38) (Sell & Murrell 2006, p. 346; Rich et al. 2009). Fermanagh is the only VC on this list that does not have a sea-coast. Rich et al. (2009) found that occurrences range in altitude from almost sea level to at least 300 m, on a variety of aspects, generally on steep inaccessible slopes.

References

Revised Typescript Flora; Perring & Sell 1968; Rich et al 2009; Sell & Murrell 2006