Welcome to the nascent webpage for Huntingdonshire. For those who don't know me, my name is David Broughton and I have recently taken over responsibility as Vice County Recorder from Terry Wells, who has retired, and Kevin Walker, who is now responsible for the BSBI Plant Unit.

I hope that people will bear with me while I find my feet and recognise that it will be difficult for me to replicate, at least over the short-term, Terry's in-depth knowledge of the Huntingdonshire flora. I am sure that everyone will be grateful, as I am, that Terry will still be there in the background but from now on all records and other VC correspondence should be addressed to myself (contact details below).

It is hoped that this webpage will become an important focus for activities in Huntingdonshire. The first major project that I am keen to progress is the Rare Plant Register, details of which will be posted soon, so watch this space.

I am also aware that the we are close to the end of the current recording phase for the BSBI Maps Scheme. I consider this to be one of the most important recent innovations by the BSBI and I hope that others will join me in actively recording so that we can maximise coverage of the County by the end of current date class. As such, I will be pleased to receive completed recording forms (see link) or more casual ad hoc records from all interested members of the Society.

Other developing interests of mine are charophytes and infraspecific taxa. Huntingdonshire is responsible for internationally important charophyte populations and assemblages. Given this, these under-recorded species deserve to be high on our agenda.

Similarly, we have much to learn with regard to the diversity and distributions of infraspecific taxa within Huntingdonshire. With the publication of the initial volumes of the Flora of Great Britain and Ireland (Sell & Murrell, 1996 & 2006), along with the ongoing relevance of the Plant Crib, detailed accounts are now are available for a wide range of widely known and more obscure infraspecific taxa. As such, the time has perhaps never been better for recording such taxa and the data generated is undoubtedly going to be of great interest. Even a more consistent approach to recording the commoner variants will help in understanding the distribution and ecology of the scarcer infraspecific taxa. For example, with the recent discovery of Calystegia sepium ssp. roseata at Holme Fen this raises questions such as how widely is this taxon distributed? and, what is its distribution relative to the common ssp. sepium?

David Broughton, 55 Star Road, Peterborough, PE1 5HT (d_broughton@tiscali.co.uk).

If planning to send more bulky correspondence (larger than letterbox size, e.g. plant specimens) then I would be grateful if you could email me in the first instance so that I can provide details of my work address.

Launch of Recording for the Huntingdonshire Rare Plant Register

A preliminary list of species, subspecies and hybrids under consideration for the Rare Plant Register for Huntingdonshire is available here. At present it is envisaged that at least two seasons of recording will be needed to update the current datasets for the species listed and to allow opportunities to seek out new populations.

Some of the taxa on the list are likely to be familiar and expected, while others may be less so. A few taxa may not make the final selection but they have been included for the time being to encourage the collection of records i.e. they may be under or over-recorded. A case in point is the common knapweed aggregate, which has recently been re-split by Sell and Murrell (2006) into two species and four subspecies. True common knapweed (Centaurea nigra sens. str.) may be rare or absent within the County with all plants looked at critically so far conforming to chalk knapweed (Centaurea debeauxii), two distinct subspecies of which occur in the County.

Detailed records of all species are welcome. Please don’t be offended if following submission of records there are requests for voucher specimens or other validation. As with all recording for the BSBI it is necessary to take a cautious and critical approach when accepting records.

Finally, while I consider the Rare Plant Register an important project I will continue to encourage wider recording of the County’s flora. For those interested in undertaking a bit of ‘square bashing’ then recording cards can be downloaded from the Recorders page of this website.