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Matricaria recutita L., Scented Mayweed

Account Summary

Introduction, an archaeophyte, very rare casual, locally extinct – but possibly just a mis-identification. European southern-temperate, but widely naturalised in both hemispheres.

1 June 1995; EHS Habitat Survey Team; lakeshore at Moneendogue.

An annual weed of heavy, wet soils, M. recutita only occurs as a rare casual alien scattered throughout Ireland, mainly in the southern half of the island.

Many previous records of this species in NI, eg in FNEI 1, were probably all mistakenly identified plants of Anthemis cotula (Stinking Chamomile), another rare and declining weed of arable land (see the species account above). For the same reason, without a voucher specimen, the VC recorders (RSF & RHN) cannot unconditionally accept the solitary Fermanagh record listed here.

Webb (1985) suggested M. recutita may well also be an introduced alien in Britain and, indeed, Preston et al. (2002, 2004) have now reclassified the species as an archaeophyte.

References

FNEI 1; Webb (1985); Preston et al (2002, 2004)