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Hieracium iricum Fr., a hawkweed

Account Summary

Native, very rare.

1883; Barrington, R.M.; limestone cliffs of Shean at Pollaphuca (or Poulaphouca).

The 1951 Typescript Flora authors and R.D. Meikle in the 1975 Revised Typescript Flora regarded this solitary Fermanagh find as being another questionable hawkweed record. They also changed Barrington's description of the site from the above to, "Shean North scarps and Poulaphouca". There is no voucher for this record in BEL. The 'Critical Atlas' (Perring & Sell 1968, Map 558/1.60, p. 91), displays several hectads indicating the presence of H. iricum in adjacent Cos Sligo (H28) and Leitrim (H29), but none in Fermanagh. The editors comment that the B & I distribution of this microspecies is similar to that of the widespread H. anglicum (English Hawkweed), but that it is more local.

In the FNEI 3, P. Hackney comments on its records in Cos Antrim (H39) and Londonderry (H40) by suggesting that H. iricum is more strictly calcicole in its behaviour than the closely allied and more commonly found H. anglicum, with which small specimens of the former can be confused. In NE Ireland, H. iricum is rather frequently recorded, but it appears to be confined to basalt and chalk strata.

H. iricum is described by Sell & Murrell (2006, p. 314) as a plant of usually upland habitats – the familiar mantra of cliff ledges, rocky outcrops and streamsides, although no mention is made by these authors regarding any calcicole preference of this microspecies.

References

Typescript Flora; Revised Typescript Flora; Critical Atlas; FNEI 3; Sell & Murrell 2006