Vinca minor L., Lesser Periwinkle
Account Summary
Introduction, archaeophyte, a rare garden escape.
30 May 1990; Northridge, R.H.; Nutfield Estate.
April to September.
This very familiar, usually blue-flowered, semi-woody, evergreen garden herb spreads vegetatively by its creeping or arching stems rooting as the tip touches the soil. It thus 'frog-hops' along the ground, making it a very effective garden ground-cover species, especially when grown under damp, shady conditions. It can tolerate dry soils and steep slopes, especially when it becomes established, but foliage can become burnt if exposed to full sun. It tolerates a wide range of soils, but is unsuitable for heavy, very wet or compacted ground. Although it regularly flowers, V. minor does not often form fruit (An Irish Flora 1996). Flower colour can vary from blue to purple, lavender or white and there are variegated leaf varieties also.
Typically, V. minor is found near houses, frequently along woodland margins or hedgerows, or on roadsides where it may have been deposited with garden waste, or as plant fragments capable of establishment and survival.
In Fermanagh, there are records of it from seven tetrads, thinly scattered in the E & S of the VC. Oddly enough, as the tetrad map indicates, almost all of the records are close to the county boundary! At Nutfield, near Brookeborough, the plant is very well established in woodland, which is quite a rare circumstance in Ireland.
Both species of garden periwinkles, V. minor and V. major (Greater Periwinkle), were introduced to B & I, probably from S, W & C Europe and the Mediterranean region. V. minor is believed to have been in British gardens by the year 995 making it an archaeophyte (Harvey 1981). V. major was introduced considerably later, around 1550 (Ellis 1993). Of the two, V. minor is frequently preferred ground-cover since it is smaller, lower growing, more shade-tolerant and less invasive than V. major (Stace & Crawley 2015). Both Vinca species contain toxic alkaloids that can poison pets. Since it is the most widely cultivated of the two, V. minor more often escapes the garden and is more frequently recorded (T.D. Dines, in: Preston et al. 2002).
Both Periwinkle species are much more frequently recorded in the warmer southern half of Britain, while in Ireland they are only occasionally listed by botanists (BSBI Atlases; FNEI 3; Flora of Co Dublin; New Atlas). Nevertheless, the Cen Cat Fl Ir 2 lists V. minor as having been found in 19 of the 40 Irish VCs, without including Fermanagh.
Fermanagh Occurence
Threats
None.