WORK OF A RARE BREED

In the depths of an old limestone quarry in the Cotswolds, a small group of people are intensely scouring the ground for a minute plant with almost microsopic white flowers.

Biting winds over the winter months appear to have prevented most of the plants from germinating. What few have braved the temperatures are carefully counted and logged on special record sheets, which Peter Sheasby keeps safely on a clipboard.

The group had been spending a weekday morning counting plants of the Cotswold Penny-Cress at one of only three known sites of the plant in a former quarry in West Oxfordshire.

What has made the search more difficult is that it seems to grow close to another small but slightly larger white flowering plant that is nowhere near so rare. It is easy to confuse the two without Mr Sheasby corroborating a find.

He said: "The Penny-Cress germinates over the winter so, in a cold season like we have had, it has obviously been a bad year for it to grow. By this time last year there were many more to be seen and some had flowered and fruited by now. I think 2006 will just have to be put down as a bad year for the Penny-Cress."

For the past few years, Mr Sheasby, a retired researcher at the Alcan factory in Banbury, has been leading monitoring expeditions for the Cotswold Rare Plants Group, checking on seven species found in the region.

Other species include Meadow Clary, the Yellow Star of Bethlehem and the Downy Woundwort, of which only two sites are known. Like the Penny-Cress, the Meadow Clary has been brought "back from the brink" of extinction.

Apart from logging the numbers and locations of plants, group members take action to preserve such plants.

Mr Sheasby added: "Our job is to make sure a site for plants has not been destroyed, which happens sometimes by accident or the wrong sort of management."

For example, one of the sites of the Meadow Clary is on a common in West Oxfordshire and to keep rabbits and other predators at bay, members have built 'wigwams' from twigs to put over the plants to give them some protection. They have considered installing temporary fencing and might do so if the twigs are unsuccessful.

The rare plants group was set up as a sub-group by the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire, which is based in Oxford but has no connection with the Ashmolean Musuem.

The Cotswold group covers West Oxfordshire and there is another in the Henley-on-Thames area, plus there is the Oxford Rare Plants Group. Together the three groups cover a large part of the county.

Mr Sheasby explained that most plants have been known about and recorded by various bodies for years.

"We are responsible for monitoring the survival of plants, looking at land management in co-operation with landowners. We collect seeds from various species and seeds are sent on to the Millenium Seed Bank, held by the Royal Botanical Gardens at Wakehurst Place, Kent. We also send the results of our monitoring to Plant Life International, which is based in Salisbury," he said.

The rare plant groups also liaise with the records centre for plant and natural history sites in Oxfordshire, which is at the Oxfordshire Museum in Fletcher's House at Woodstock, the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire WildLife Trust, English Nature and landowners.

Frances Watkins, vice-president, explained that the Ashmolean Natural History Society had various groups for rare plants, education and surveys of roadside verges. There is also a small editorial board that publishes its journal, Fritillary.

Groups are also working with the Oxfordshire rare plants register, which was inspired by the Botanical Society of the British Isles.

Mrs Watkins added: "We are checking all known sites of plants that are assessed as being rare."

The challenge was in the first year of a three-year project and Oxfordshire groups were well advanced with their monitoring.

More information on the rare plants groups can be obtained by visiting www.oxfordrareplants.org.uk.