#55 Water Germander by Jono Leadley
Meet Jono Leadley, North Regional Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust!
Jonathan ‘Jono’ Leadley is North Regional Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust where he has been responsible for the Trust’s operations across North Yorkshire since 2017. Prior to that, Jono worked in fundraising and communications, for YWT, and also at Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Beds, Cambs and Northants Wildlife Trust. A lifelong birder, Jono has a passion for all wildlife and is a committed conservationist. His exploits can be read about on his long-running blog: birdingdad.blogspot.com, or through his Twitter/X account @birdingdad. In his spare time, he leads wildlife tours for Yorkshire Coast Nature and Wildlife Travel, is the York-area Bird Recorder and runs the York Swifts project.
It seems a little peculiar to choose a plant that went extinct in Yorkshire in the 1860s, in a blog celebrating the county’s wildlife! Jono’s chosen species and the little plant in question is Water Germander Teucrium scordium, an endangered Red Listed wetland species, known from only two sites in Devon and one in Cambridgeshire.
It is thought that Water Germander was never common, occurring across a scatter of sites in England and Wales, many of which were lost due to drainage or declined in suitability due to ecological succession over the decades. The only known site in the north of England was at Bolton Beck, close to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Bolton-on-Swale Lake nature reserve, near Catterick. The exact site of the colony, which was recorded between the 1830s and 1863 was not clear, as Bolton Beck’s course has been much altered due to the extensive quarrying in the area.
Water Germander
Water Germander looks a little bit like a pink-flowered dead nettle, or perhaps Water-mint, and will be unfamiliar to many. Unlike the heady scent of Water-mint, Water Germander smells a bit garlicky or perhaps mousy! The pink flowers provide a welcome nectar source for a range of wetland flies and other insects, clearly adding value to the ecosystem. It is a species of early successional wetland habitats, which may have been more commonly found along natural river systems in the past. It is the loss of these habitats that has led to the demise of Water Germander in Yorkshire, along with other species that rely on them.
Whist Water Germander does set seed, it mainly propagates by growing lengthy lateral stolons, which may snap off, float about, and can put down roots and form a new plant if they settle at a suitable spot. The presence of bare, muddy margins is clearly important to enable the plants to establish, signifying the link to early successional habitats. Seasonally fluctuating water levels are also important, and perhaps the presence of large animals, such as geese, to break off the stolons and spread them around, helping the plants transfer to new areas. The plant is intolerant of shading and can be outcompeted by vigorously-growing tall wetland plants, such as Reed Sweet-grass, or Common Reed, which is why the species is lost as succession takes place to more mature habitats.
Recording and monitoring
‘Water Germander is a species close to my heart as I have been working on a project to return it to North Yorkshire’ says Jono. ‘Even though small in stature, it is an icon of the dynamic, connected wetlands that would have once been common across Yorkshire. Attention is too often on the large, charismatic wetland species, so I am pleased to be able to help one of the less well-known underdogs’.
In 1998, attempts were made to introduce Water Germander to a new fenland nature reserve known as Kingfisher’s Bridge, lying next to the remaining Cambridgeshire site. This proved incredibly successful, and a recent estimate put the population at several million plants! The site has a range of wetland habitats, lots of disturbance from geese and livestock, and fluctuating water levels, all of which clearly suit Water Germander. Bolton-on-Swale Lake offers these conditions too, so seems a likely spot to try and reintroduce this lost plant. It is very close to the last known location too, which seems fitting.
In 2022, Martin Hammond and volunteers at the Lower Ure Conservation Trust, secured a license to collect Water Germander plants from Kingfisher’s Bridge to attempt to propagate them in the wetland plant nursery at Nosterfield Nature Reserve. This was successful and having secured some funding from Natural England, in September 2023 Yorkshire Wildlife Trust working in partnership with LUCT, reintroduced 100 plants to Bolton-on-Swale Lake nature reserve under license from Natural England. This was an historic day, putting the plant into Yorkshire soil for the first time in 160 years, and minds are now focussed on summer 2024, to see if the species has managed to propagate itself naturally. Jono is reasonably confident that this will be the case as the conditions at Bolton-on-Swale are similar to Kingfisher’s Bridge. Time will tell! The LUCT team are busy growing more plants and we will augment the 2023 reintroduction with these later this year. Jono’s team will continue to monitor the site to see if the species manages to colonise the lakeshore and islands away from the planting sites. If the project is successful, consideration could be given to introducing the species to other suitable former quarry sites in North Yorkshire, subject to careful consideration and discussion with Natural England and local stakeholders.
You can follow the progress of this project through Twitter/X: @YWT_North or through Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s website.
Further information and acknowledgements
NEYEDC would like to thank Jono for his time and expertise in helping to create this blog.