Flowering plants, ferns (and their relatives)

Higher plants are the fabric of the Welsh natural environment - its major source of life.  They make up a rich and intriguing flora of more than 1,300 native and established species of flowering plants, conifers and ferns ... including their strange and ancient relatives - the quillworts, horsetails and clubmosses.  And there are probably hundreds more bramble and dandelion 'microspecies' which have yet to be described.

Every year these species are joined by dozens more accidental and deliberate introductions, most often from horticulture.  Every year others decline into rarity . . . or disappear. 

We need to understand these trends, in order to conserve the wildlife and the breathtaking beauty that makes Wales.

Plants of the Celtic fringe

The traveller in Europe is struck by the similarities between Wales and her sister countries. 

Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany all have the same abundance of gorse and bell-heather - the same bluebell-woods and roadside pennywort.

Above all, there is a luxuriance of ferns and their relatives.  The Atlantic part of Europe is a centre of world biodiversity for these plants, and Wales is thought to possess one of its richest “hotspots”. 

In fact, there are more species of ferns and fern-allies in the southern uplands of Caernarfonshire than in any equivalent area of the British Isles. 

But Wales and the Atlantic countries all have major international responsibilities for a much wider range of plants.  Marsh orchids, water-crowfoots, pondweeds and eyebright species all have a large part of their world populations here. 

These are partly the result of very similar high rainfalls and thin rocky soils, but they also reflect the shared human element. 

The Celtic countries have very similar farming traditions and cultural approaches to landscape - the characteristic feel of the Welsh countryside is a product of both plants and people.