We head into the forest in search of a scarce plant. Nine years ago almost to the day, I chanced upon a single stem of narrow-leaved lungwort (Pulmonaria longifolia), and I want to find out if it is still there. Then, it had been growing in the shelter of a young bramble, with primroses alongside.
Before setting out, I check with Martin Rand, the botanical recorder for south Hampshire. When he tells me that he hasn’t had a report of its presence in this area since the turn of the millennium, I regret not having given him a note of my find before.
Though we search carefully, there is nothing to be seen. The site is suffocated by brambles and gorse. Even the primroses are missing. “Oh, well,” I say, “this diary will have to be about what we haven’t found.” On the way back, however, and some distance away, my grandson Callum spots a plant that we missed on the way out. With our eyes in, we find he’s located a small colony. Clustered around two trees, and shaded by them, the lungwort is on a bank with primroses and violets. Further along, wood anemones are in full flush, wood sorrel is just beginning to flower, and the floral heads of wood spurge stand tall.
Unlike the pictures on many websites, the plants here are very narrow-leaved, and any marking on them is extremely faint. Most have the usual mix of pulmonaria petal shades, vivid blues and purplish reds, but one plant had only bright blue florets.
While fairly widespread in western Europe, narrow-leaved lungwort is more or less confined in this country to the area around the Solent river basin, created 10,000 or so years ago when rising seas separated Britain from the continent’s landmass.
Today, it is less frequent in the forest than in former times, and seems to be hanging on rather than flourishing. It was exciting to meet it for the first time those years ago, but I wonder how long others will share that pleasure?
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