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Sagina apetala subsp. erecta F.
Herm., Annual Pearlwort

Account Summary

Native, very rare, but possibly over-looked and under-recorded.

1958; Mackechnie, R.; railway tracks near Pettigoe village.

This form of the small annual has been recorded only once in Fermanagh as listed above. Sadly the railway tracks have long ago been lifted. The respected Scottish botanist, R. Mackechnie, who was visiting the county regularly at the time, recorded it. Notice of the record first appeared in the Revised Typescript Flora.

Generally, elsewhere, this subspecies occurs in similar or identical habitats to the common form which we have in Fermanagh, subsp. apetala, ie in dry, sunny, bare or open, man-made, disturbed or compacted ground. A widespread smattering of both old and recent records of Fringed Pearlwort are plotted throughout Ireland in the New Atlas, a fact which strongly suggests that we, along with many other botanical field workers, are probably guilty of overlooking this variant. We may partially be excused by past name confusion created by the taxonomists, but all the identification points were made clear in New Flora of the BI (1991, 1997).

Perhaps unfortunately, in terms of remembering the distinguishing identification feature, the developing fruit capsule of subsp. erecta has patent sepals arranged around it, NOT erect to erecto-patent ones as in subsp. apetala. The sepals are blunt at their apex, whereas those of subsp. apetala are acute.

As noted above, this taxon has subsequently been combined with other forms and included in a new species, S. filicaulis Jord. (Sell & Murrell 2018).

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Threats

None.