DHBlog028 · An article by Alex Mills
I recently met the delightful Moenchia erecta (Upright Chickweed) for the first time. It was, however, in the Malvern Hills. To confirm, the Malverns are not quite in VC9, missing by a mere 100 miles. But, this encounter prompted me to take a look into the status of this upstanding and reputable member of the Caryophyllaceae in VC9, where it sits on the Dorset Rare Plant Register.
The earliest record in Dorset for M. erecta is Bell Salter, 1839, given in Mansel-Pleydell (1895) under its old name Moenchia quaternella. The location, however, is unclear. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s Database (BSBI DDb) has the first record assigned to Mansel-Pleydell for Okeford Fitzpaine, Knacker's Hole, ST81, 1895. (On a slight and hopefully excusabe tangent, there’s a record in Mansel-Pleydell attributed to a J.H.Austen. I really hoped it would be Jane and push back the earliest record by decades, perhaps whilst researching for Persuasion (1818). But, alas, it seems to be one Rev. J.H. Austen. I’m sure he was a lovely bloke but no pioneering satirical author).
In any case, Mansel-Pleydell’s flora relates that M. erecta is ‘frequent on the sandy heath districts.’ Sadly, this no longer the case. Whilst M. erecta has been recorded from 19 hectads in vc9, there have only been six records since 2000. At a monad scale, it’s 53 monads overall but just 15 since 2000. An annual of open vegetation, M. erecta grows on acid, sandy soils, including on Godlingston golf course. Now, I really don’t wish to say anything positive about golf, but it is doing quite well in that area. As the map in Figure 1 indicates, Wareham Common and Godlinsgton Heath are the post-2000 strongholds. Further west in Dorset, it’s also known from Tulk’s Hill, Thorncombe Beacon, Pilsdon Pen, and the Golden Cap estate.
Figure 1: Heatmap showing post-2000 records for M. erecta for VC9 grouped by monad.
Across Britain, there were massive declines throughout the twentieth-century and losses are still continuing in many areas (Figure 2 BSBI Map Attached). Records exist for M. erecta for 274 hectads before 1930 and 196 between 2000-2019 (see footnote). Whilst it’s currently assessed Vulnerable on the England Red List and whilst it’s Least Concern on the Great Britain Red List, Plant Atlas 2020 modelling work reports strong declines since 1987 for both England and Britain. The change map available on the Plant Atlas 2020 indicates that the Dorset hectads have, thankfully, remained stable since 1987, supported by the fact that if we shift our record-search start date back from 2000 to 1987 the number of monads which have held M. erecta only rises by one to 16.
The losses in Dorset have likely been attributable to those recorded nationally, with habitat loss to agricultural changes and development; the enrichment of soil via fertilisers, which leads to this diminutive thing being outcompeted; and grazing/management insufficient to prevent swamping by more vigorous (thuggish) plants. Dorset’s remaining sites are almost all SSSIs or National Trust owned land, so protection and management conducive to the populations’ persistence should be in place.
And because everyone loves a bit of scientific name etymology fun-and-games: the genus is named after the eighteenth-century German botanist Conrad Moench and the species epithet is, apparently, derived from the Latin for ‘set up’, in reference to the plant’s growth habit. So, that’s that.
Late April to mid-June is the best time to see M. erecta, even if it appears to open up its flowers somewhat unwillingly. Still, who needs to flaunt their petals when you’ve got pale-margined sepals as fine as Moenchia? So, get out there and have a look. Perhaps you can re-find it at somewhere it’s been thought lost, or maybe you can find it at a new site altogether?
References
Mansel-Pleydell, J.C., 1895, The Flora of Dorsetshire. (2nd ed.). Privately printed.
Moenchia erecta (L.) G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb. in BSBI Online Plant Atlas 2020, eds P.A. Stroh, T. A. Humphrey, R.J. Burkmar, O.L. Pescott, D.B. Roy, & K.J. Walker. https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.1gm [Accessed 19/04/2023]
Editor’s footnote: For comparison, there are roughly 2800 hectads covering Great Britain, so the 274 and 196 mentioned above represent 10% and 7% respectively.