Stachys arvensis (L.) L., Field Woundwort

Introduction, archaeophyte, either a very rare casual or a possible mis-identification. Suboceanic southern-temperate, but widely naturalised with agriculture in both hemispheres.

June 1990; Montgomery, J. & Foster, S.; Hanging Rock NR.

As detailed above, this annual woundwort has been recorded just once in Fermanagh by two members of the EHS Habitat Survey Team at Hanging Rock NR, a fairly well wooded limestone block scree. Without a voucher, this first VC record really cannot be wholeheartedly accepted. However, as a formerly frequent weed of arable cultivation that has existing records from Cos Down (H38), Antrim (H39) and Londonderry (H40), it is not an impossibility that this might be a correct identification (FNEI 3). Nevertheless, S. arvensis is rare and very local in northern parts of Ireland.

In most of its B & I range, this small annual species frequents moderately fertile, mildly acid, non-calcareous light, sandy soils in arable fields, although in W Ireland it previously did occur on limestone soils in the 19th century (Flora of Connemara and the Burren). The New Atlas hectad map shows that Field Woundwort remains quite well established, although still only occasional, in the cereal growing SE of Ireland. It also appears locally and sporadically in parts of the far south, but it is very rare and sparsely scattered elsewhere on the island (New Atlas).

The current author (RSF) feels that the DOE recorders either made a slip of the tongue or of the pen, or perhaps they mistook the plant for a very poorly grown specimen of S. sylvatica (Hedge Woundwort), a species which previously has been recorded from this NR site.

S. arvensis was included on the list of 41 species previously assumed to be native in B & I, which Webb (1985) considered more probably introduced by man. The editors of the New Atlas have now concurred and the species is now accepted as an archaeophyte, probably introduced to Britain in Roman times.

Across B & I, there have been many population losses of this annual, beginning pre-1950 and accelerating since then (New Atlas). The most recent BSBI Local Change re-survey in 2003-4 of the 1987 Monitoring Scheme hectads and selected tetrads in Britain, found an unexpected resurgence of S. arvensis, especially in waste ground near southern coasts (Braithwaite et al. 2006).