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Alopecurus bulbosus txt:                                                          BACK TO MAIN MENU

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Alopecurus bulbosus Gouan                                                                                   Bulbous Foxtail     __________________________________________________________________________________ 

Essex Status: Native, only one known extant site.

This rare perennial grass is said to grow in damp, brackish, lightly-grazed turf, rather than on salt marsh, although it can survive periodic inundation by the sea, and is often associated with such species as Carex divisa, Juncus gerardii and Trifolium fragiferum. Confined to England, it has been recorded from 54 hectads post-1970, having disappeared from a further 32. It is a difficult grass to spot, as although it often grows as a pure sward, and can be recognised by its swollen leaf bases, it lies dormant for much of the year, with leaf growth from mid-April to July, flowering taking place from mid-May to June [followed by rapid break up of the spikelets after seed set], and then it lies dormant until the autumn, when it grows a new batch of leaves (Fitzgerald 1994). It is closely related to A. geniculatus, with which it often grows and sometimes hybridises, but it is more upright and tufted, and has pointed, as opposed to blunt glumes.

It differs from Poa bulbosa, which also has swollen leaf bases, in its acute as opposed to blunt ligule and persistent leaves. Those of P. bulbosa wither by about the end of April, leaving the swollen bases to break off as propagules, whereas those of A. bulbosus serve as food stores to regenerate the plants after the summer drought or marine inundation. It may be that it is still present on some of our Essex grazing marshes, and we have yet to get our eye in for it.

Its rediscovery at East Bergholt on the opposite bank of the Stour in 1979, suggests that a stroll along the bank of the Stour west of Manningtree in late May could well confirm its presence, but the original site found by Francis Rose in 1951, and independently by Rachel Hamilton in 1967, - a flower-rich brackish pasture, is no longer brackish, because of the new Judas Gap sluice, and is now heavily grazed.

A thorough search for it in the brackish marshes all the way from Hythe down to Wivenhoe, by Terri Tarpey and Jeremy Heath in June 1991, also failed to refind it along the Colne estuary. Possibly, cessation of grazing along this coastal stretch has hastened its demise.

Terri Tarpey has however turned it up in grazing marsh on the south side of the Roman River, so it is still with us in Essex

We need to look for it at the right time of year in the Tilbury Fort area.

All records:

 

 

 

 

TQ(51)67

65 ,75

18

Tilbury Fort, 1832 W W Newbold.  (Gibson 1862)

 

 

 

 

TM(62)02

04 ,21+

19

Wivenhoe. Botanical Exchange Club Report (1930) 376.

 

 

 

Wivenhoe. Herbarium K. 26 June 1926. G C Brown. & Botanical Exchange Club Report 9: 321-379.                                                                                  Druce, G.C. New County and other Records.

 

02 ,24+

19

Hythe. Colchester. W L P Garnons. (Gibson 1862)

 

019,202

19

Fingringhoe, Roman River Valley, c. 80+ flower heads in grazing marsh. 9 June 2004. Terri Tarpey.

 

 

 

 

TM(62)03

09 ,32

19

West of Manningtree, 1951. Francis Rose.

 

09 ,32

19

Judas Gap, nr Manningtree, brackish flower rich pasture. 1967. Rachel Hamilton [now destroyed]