Schedule 8 plants

Schedule 8 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 ("WACA") contains a list of protected wild plants.

It is illegal to intentionally pick, uproot or destroy a wild plant listed in Schedule 8. It's also illegal to sell a wild plant listed in Schedule 8 or anything derived from such a plant, as well as to do various things connected with selling such a plant (including offering, advertising or transporting the plant).

The following plants are listed in Schedule 8.

Least adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum lusitanicum)

Courtesy of FloreAlpes.com

This rather unprepossessing plant is a small winter annual fern. It takes the shape of a single blade with three to eight notches on each side and rarely grows taller than 2 cm.

Least adder's-tongue is actually a fairly abundant plant. Its original distribution was the Mediterranean basin and the Atlantic coasts of Western Europe and North Africa, but it's now found worldwide.

The reason it's protected in Great Britain is that it occurs here only in a single area of coastal heathland on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly, where it is facing competition from other species.

Pale alyssum (Alyssum alissoides)

Courtesy of Saxifraga

This species is known by numerous common names, including pale madwort, yellow alyssum and small alison (which is the name given to it in Schedule 8). It's an annual or biennial member of the mustard family with hairy stems and tiny little yellow flowers.

Pale alyssum is rather depressingly described as a "poor competitor" and has been declining in number since it was first introduced into Britain in 1740. It's now recorded only in isolated spots, including in south-east Wales, the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border, the East Riding and west of Edinburgh.

Long-leaved anomodon (Anomodon longifolius)

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Also known as long-leaved tail-moss, this is a moss that occurs relatively frequently in Continental Europe but only very rarely in Great Britain. According to the Atlas of British and Irish Bryophytes, the entire population in Great Britain is restricted to one or a few rock faces at individual sites.

The Atlas records this plant in only six locations between 1990 and 2013 - two in the Scottish Highlands, two on the Welsh-English border just north of the Severn Estuary, one in the North Pennines and one in South Yorkshire - and notes that it continues to be in decline. It's not impossible that it has disappeared from Great Britain altogether.

New Forest beech-lichen (Enterographa elaborata)

Courtesy of Mushroom Observer

This is not actually a plant but a lichen, a composite of algae or cyanobacteria living among fungal filaments. It seems to be found predominantly, if not exclusively, on mature beeches and ashes.

The common name alludes to its previous distribution in Great Britain within the New Forest, as well as the Isle of Wight and other parts of south-east England. However, these records are now old and it may well be that the only extant site of E. elaborata in the UK is now a single mature ash tree on Hanging Rock in Country Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Further afield, it can be found in Western Continental Europe, the Azores and Madeira.

Blackwort (Southbya nigrella)

Courtesy of INPN

Blackwort is a liverwort which occurs in various parts of the World but in Great Britain is found only on the Portland peninsula in Dorset and near Old Blackgang on the south coast of the Isle of Wight.

Blackwort is also a historical common name for common comfrey (Symphytum officinale), a completely different plant which is common throughout Great Britain.

Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

Courtesy of NatureSpot

It's hard not to be familiar with one of Britain's most iconic woodland flowers. It's also known as the common bluebell to distinguish it from the similar but discernible Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica) and the hybrid bluebell (Hyacinthoides x massartiana).

Other names bandied about for this flower include the "English bluebell" (a poor name, in my opinion, given that the plant's original distribution stretches across most of Western Europe) and the rather jingoistic "native bluebell".

Despite its name, the bluebell is really more of a purple or violet colour, although around 1 in every 10,000 bluebells presents a beautiful white albino. Although historically used in folk medicine, bluebells are toxic and can cause gastrointestinal problems and, if eaten in large quantities, death. For this reason, it is important to be able to distinguish white bluebells from the very similar-looking but eminently more delicious and edible three-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum).

Common bluebells are very common in Great Britain. Their inclusion in Schedule 8 derives more from the perceived threat from the Spanish bluebell, which is rapidly expanding within Great Britain due to its tolerance of a wider range of habitats and which hybridises very easily with the common bluebell to form the hybrid bluebell.

Common bluebells are relatively easy to tell apart from Spanish bluebells in a number of ways:

• Spanish bluebells are generally a fainter purple than common bluebells.
• Spanish bluebells tend to stand erect, whilst common bluebells typically curve over to one side.
• Spanish bluebells bears flowers on all sides of its stem, whereas the common bluebell bears flowers only on the underside of the curve in its stem.
• The petals (actually tepals) on common bluebells curve right round until they almost touch their own backs, whilst the petals on Spanish bluebells merely flay out slightly (more like three-cornered leek).
• Common bluebells produce creamy-white pollen, whereas Spanish bluebells usually produce blue pollen (although it is possible to find white pollen on Spanish bluebells).
• Common bluebells have a stronger scent than Spanish bluebells.

It is much harder to tell the difference between common bluebells and hybrid bluebells, and harder still to tell the difference between hybrid bluebells and Spanish bluebells.

Common bluebells are listed in Schedule 8 only for the purposes of section 13(2) of WACA. This has caused a fair bit of confusion, and it is quite easy to find numerous sources inaccurately explaining the law in this area, either by stating that it is simply illegal to pick bluebells or by stating that it is illegal to pick them for commercial purposes.

Strictly speaking, it is lawful to pick bluebells growing in the wild, and it is lawful for a person to uproot them from their own land. However, it is illegal to sell wild bluebells, to offer, advertise or transport them for sale, or to have them in your possession for the purposes of sale.

In effect, this means you can pick bluebells for your own enjoyment but you can't collect them for sale. However, the law is actually broader than this. It's also illegal to sell, offer, etc. wild bluebells that have been collected by someone else.

Royal bolete (Butyriboletus regius)

Courtesy of MykoWeb

Another imposter masquerading as a plant, the royal bolete or red-capped butter bolete is actually a mushroom. It is listed in Schedule 8 under its former binomial, Boletus regius, but was reclassified in 2014 following molecular analysis.

The royal bolete is fairly recognisable with its podgy, pink-red head and stout, bulbous base. It's pretty rare in Europe generally but more common in North America.

It is edible but, as with all mushrooms, it has many highly toxic look-a-likes and so should be left to experts. However, the fact that it's included in Schedule 8 means that you'll have to grow it at home to enjoy it.

Bedstraw broomrape (Orobanche caryophyllacea)

Courtesy of floralimages.co.uk

The next three species listed in Schedule 8 are all broomrapes. Broomrape are small, parasitic herbs, rarely exceeding around 60 cm in height, that bear yellow, white or blue flowers a bit like those of a snapdragon. They completely lack chlorophyll, giving them a yellowy-brown colour and rendering them completely reliant on other plants for nutrition.

Bedstraw broomrape, also known as clove-scented broomrape, occurs almost exclusively on the Kent coast in grassy sand dunes, scrub and hedge banks. It is parasitic mainly on hedge bedstraw (Galium mollugo) and lady's or yellow bedstraw (Galium verum), which are both much more widespread.

Oxtongue broomrape (Orobanche picridis)

Courtesy of Radim Cibulka

Listed in Schedule 8 under its previous binomial, Orobanche loricata, oxtongue broomrape is, as its name suggests, it is parasitical on oxtongues, plants within the Picris genus, particularly hawkweed oxtongue (Picris hieracioides), which is very widespread throughout Great Britain.

Although historical surveys record oxtongue broomrape in various isolated spots in Great Britain, recent surveys suggest that it is probably now found only on the south Kent coast and on the west cost of the Isle of Wight. It is certainly in danger of extinction.

Thistle broomrape (Orobanche reticulata)

Courtesy of dont_think (Flickr)

The last broomrape listed in Schedule 8, thistle broomrape or Yorkshire broomrape is normally parasitic on creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), an exceptionally common plant in Great Britain. The plant itself is very beautiful, with the inflorescence rising in a spike of purple-yellow two-lipped flowers.

According to the most recent surveys, thistle broomrape is now found solely in West Yorkshire (east and north-east of Leeds) and North Yorkshire (in the Ripon area) within the Magnesian Limestone zone, and separately around near Wharram Quarry in North Yorkshire. It occurs on dry, chalky soil and typically in the shade. Although rare, it is stable and not in natural decline.

Lundy cabbage (Rhynchosinapsis wrightii)

Courtesy of idunyacht.com

This plucky little plant, reminiscent of other cruciferous vegetation, is found only on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. It is related to cabbage, broccoli and other brassicas, although it is now placed in its own genus along with its brother, Isle of Man cabbage (Rhynchosinapsis monensis), being distinguished by (among other things) its stalked leaves.

Lundy cabbage is one of Great Britain's few endemic island species and as such has gained special protection through its inclusion in Schedule 8.

Woodland calamint (Clinopodium menthifolium ssp. menthifolium)

Courtesy of the Online Atlas of
British and Irish Fauna

Listed in Schedule 8 under its previous binomial, Calamintha sylvatica, woodland calamint is a plant in the broader mint family, the Lamiaceae. It is relatively common and widely distributed in Western Europe and North Africa. However, in Great Britain it appears only on a single site in the west of the Isle of Wight and, possibly, on a site near Builth Wells in central Wales.

It resembles mint and can be used for similar purposes, including to make tisanes and flavour food, although obviously it cannot be picked while growing in the wild in Great Britain.