Nitrogen deposition and 'native thugs'

Harebell
Image: C. Ferguson-Smyth

Our colleagues at Plantlife have been on radio and TV today spreading the word about how Nitrogen pollution is impacting on our wild flowers.   

Dr Trevor Dines (Plantlife's Botanical Specialist and a longtime BSBI member) blogged about this here, and if you click here you can catch his interview on BBC Breakfast this morning. Starts at 1 hour 21 minutes in.

You can also catch this interview with Jenny Hawley of Plantlife on this morning's Today programme on BBC Radio 4 (starts at 1 hour 24 minutes in), or download Plantlife's report here. You can also see what Trevor had to say in the Huffington Post a few hours ago, or check out how the story was covered in The Telegraph and The Scotsman. 

BSBI members may also want to check out this paper by Rob Marrs et al. published in 2013 in New Journal of Botany, which flags up the impact 'native thugs' like nettles are having on the ground flora of our woodlands.  

As Trevor pointed out on BBC Breakfast, one of the plants affected by the Nitrogen-loving 'thugs' is the delicate Harebell, once a common wildflower and now classified as Near Threatened on the England Red List.