#61 Bird's-eye Primrose by Elizabeth Sullivan
Meet Elizabeth Sullivan, ecologist at the National Trust!
Elizabeth is an ecologist, working for the National Trust in the Yorkshire Dales. National Trust land in the Dales covers lots of fantastic habitats from large expanses of acidic blanket bog to tiny alkaline flushes where specialist species find their niche. Elizabeth works alongside colleagues and volunteers to record and monitor flora and fauna, develop management plans, and get involved in a range of projects. Every day is different in this rewarding job but the challenge of protecting and enhancing our precious habitats and species is ever-present. Elizabeth can be contacted at Elizabeth.Sullivan@nationaltrust.org.uk.
Bird’s-eye Primrose, Peter Katic
Elizabeth’s chosen species is the Bird’s-eye Primrose Primula farinosa. Choosing one species to write about is very difficult, but this plant has such a close association with the limestone geology of the Yorkshire Dales that it feels like it deserves a place in a short(ish)list of Yorkshire’s 100 Species!
Bird’s-eye Primrose is in the same family as the more common Primrose and Cowslip but its distribution in the UK is much more restricted. It is extinct from Scotland and found only in northern England. Like many species it has suffered significant decline as a result of agricultural intensification.
Bird’s-eye Primrose is an attractive plant with pink petals with a yellow ‘eye’ in the centre which is where it gets its common name. The botanical name, Primula farinosa, comes from the Latin farina which means flour – and if you look carefully at the underside of its rosette of leaves, you’ll see that it has a white, mealy appearance. It is a short-lived perennial plant which reproduces by seed. More information about Bird’s-eye Primrose can be found on the NBN Atlas.
Bird’s-eye Primrose can be found in damp grasslands and particularly in base-rich flushes which often support a whole host of interesting plants and invertebrates. These habitats are a feature of the Yorkshire Dales. Base-rich flushes are damp areas, often associated with springs where the water seeps slowly, bringing with it several minerals and creating conditions suited to specialist plants and animals. Flushes can be easily trampled if there are high numbers of livestock or can be negatively affected by drainage or increased nutrient levels from manure and artificial fertilisers, so the habitat is no longer a common feature, but we are fortunate to have examples in the Carboniferous limestone of the Yorkshire Dales. A walk with botanists and bryologists which passes a base-rich flush is almost guaranteed to mean all walking progress is halted for some considerable time!
Elizabeth’s first experience with this plant came during her PhD project, focusing on long-term change in grassland vegetation: ‘At the time I was very excited to see a small and isolated population in the Forest of Bowland. Having the opportunity to see much larger numbers of Bird’s-eye Primroses in full flower in the Yorkshire Dales is a real botanical highlight for me, especially when this highlight is part of my working day! Bird’s-eye Primrose isn’t just an attractive flower but it’s an indicator of a really special habitat where other important plants and animals live. We need to do everything we can to care for these habitats, particularly as species like the Bird’s-eye Primrose have such a limited distribution in the UK.’
The 2020 Plant Atlas (Primula farinosa L. in BSBI Online Plant Atlas 2020) illustrates the decline in records of Bird’s-eye Primrose with the last record in Scotland being documented in 1925. Raven and Maxwell (1956) describe references to Bird’s-eye Primrose in Yorkshire in publications from the 16th and 17th centuries so there is a very long history of botanical interest in this species. Other accounts reflect the importance of the species as being characteristic of the Craven limestone (Lousley, 1950; Lee, 2015). The main reasons for the decline, certainly in more recent years, are linked to agricultural intensification but, increasingly, the droughts and stormy conditions expected from climate change will also present a threat to damp grassland and mire habitats. Pollen records and macroscopic plant remains indicate that Bird’s-eye Primrose had a more extensive distribution at the end of the last Ice Age (Scott, 2016) which suggests that a warming climate may not be favourable for this species, as for many other upland and montane plants. Bird’s-eye Primrose is currently classified as scarce in Great Britain and Near Threatened on both the Great Britain and England Red Lists of vascular plants.
Bird’s-eye Primrose flowers
Recording and monitoring
The National Trust is keen to support biological recording and contributes to national recording schemes including the British Trust for Ornithology’s Breeding Bird Survey, Butterfly Conservation’s monitoring schemes and National Plant Monitoring Scheme. Staff and volunteers also carry out habitat condition assessments and species monitoring at sites across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Malham Tarn area has been much studied over the years and is part of Natural England’s Long Term Monitoring Network. Sites in this network are monitored for changes in vegetation, soils and air pollution. Bird’s-eye Primrose was recorded in nine of the monitoring plots in the most recent survey so it’s great to know that we are keeping a close eye on the Malham Tarn population of this species.
Further information and acknowledgements
NEYEDC would like to thank Elizabeth for her time and expertise in helping to create this blog.
References:
Lee, J. (2015) The Yorkshire Dales. Collins New Naturalist Number 130: London
Lousley, J. E. (1950) Wildflower of chalk and limestone. Collins New Naturalist Number 16: London.
Raven, J. and Walters, M. (1956) Mountain flowers. Collins New Naturalist Number 33: London.
Scott, M. (2019) Mountain Flowers. British Wildlife Publishing.