Saturday, December 16, 2006

Over 7% of Ireland’s flowering plants are at risk

Ireland has only 850 native species of flowering plants. 64 of these - that's 7% - are on the Red Data List of Irish Plants. This means that they are either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

And not only flowering plants are at risk. Certain species of fern, moss and lichen are also threatened. In fact, it is estimated that 120 species of plant are at real risk of disappearing in Ireland, and a total of 188 species are listed in the original Red Data List of Irish Plants. Of these species, 64 are flowering plants, 4 are ferns, 14 mosses, 4 liverworts, 1 lichen and 2 are algae (stoneworts).

Many populations of these species are in decline or have disappeared in parts of the country because of new housing and golf course developments, changing agricultural practices, mowing of roadside verges, drainage schemes and overgrazing.

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The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.