Flora of Ireland

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Composition of the flora

Ireland has a small flora for a European country because of its small size, lack of geological and ecological variation and its Pleistocene history.^[1] There are 3,815 species of plant listed for Ireland:^[2]

• Phylum
  Anthocerotophyta
  – hornworts: 3 species
• Phylum Bryophyta – mosses: 556 species
• Phylum Charophyta – charophytes: 244 species
• Phylum Chlorophyta – green algae: 148 species
• Phylum
  Lycopodiophyta
  – clubmosses: 9 species
• Phylum
  Magnoliophyta
  – flowering plants: 2,196 species
• Phylum Marchantiophyta – liverworts: 229 species
• Phylum
  Pinophyta
  – pines: 12 species
• Phylum
  Pteridophyta
  – ferns: 79 species
• Phylum
  Rhodophyta
  – red algae: 339 species

An additional 2,512 species of fungus occur in Ireland.

• Phylum
  Acrasiomycota
  – cellular slime molds: 1 species
• Phylum Ascomycota – sac fungi: 1,115 species
• Phylum Basidiomycota – club fungi, mushrooms, shelf fungi, puff balls: 1,228 species
• Phylum Chytridiomycota – chytrids: 4 species
• Phylum Microsporidia – 1 species
• Phylum Myxomycota – plasmodial slime moulds: 112 species
• Phylum
  Oomycota
  – water moulds: 40 species
• Phylum Zygomycota – pin or sugar moulds: 11 species

History of the flora: after the Pleistocene

Ice-sheets covered most of Ireland until 13,000 years ago when the

Mesolithic hunters entered Ireland around 8000 BC beginning human occupation and from the Neolithic landscape was progressively altered by agriculture, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. Aside from the habitat alteration new species were introduced deliberately or accidentally. The archaeologist Emmet Byrnes and botanist Declan Little, Woodlands of Ireland give a history of woodlands in Ireland.^[3]

Habitats

There are two major habitats, making up most of the land area:

Grassland

Grassland includes Lowland meadow and pasture with grasses such as

Bogs

Importance

Ireland possesses almost 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) of actively growing bogs and fens. This compares with 126,000 ha (310,000 acres) in the United Kingdom, 500 ha (1,200 acres) each in Switzerland and Germany and total loss in the Netherlands and Poland. In Ireland in 1998 there were 23,628 ha (58,390 acres) of raised bog at 164 sites (8% of original area), 143,248 ha (353,970 acres) of blanket bog at 233 sites (18% of original area) and 54,026 ha (133,500 acres) hectares of fen at 221 sites (58% of original area). These 200,000 hectares of actively growing raised and blanket bogs and fens are of European conservation importance.

Formation

In Ireland two factors led to the formation of such extensive peatlands. High rainfall- there are 175 rain-days each year in the west, southwest and northwest of Ireland and poor drainage The bogs formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago in the central lowlands of Ireland in basins of calcareous boulder clay. These became lakes overgrown with fen vegetation and infilled with fen peat which cut off the surface plants from mineral-rich water below. Nutrient-demanding fen plants were then replaced by bog mosses and plants which could survive on low levels of nutrients. The fen peat below prevented the rainwater draining away and the sponge-like bog moss and plants soaked it up.^[4]

Bog flora

The vascular plants characteristic of raised bogs (an example is the

Cut-out raised bogs are colonised by a wet woodland of birch and alder trees. Characteristic species are downy birch, black alder, grey willow, crack willow, broad buckler fern, narrow buckler fern and remote sedge.

Open water

Open water habitats include rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs, ponds and, uniquely,

A much smaller fraction is occupied by coastal habitats (muddy shores, rocky shores, sandy shores, shingle beaches, brackish water bodies, saltmarsh, maritime flushes and streams, sea cliffs and sand dunes and machair).^[6][7]

Significant or characteristic species of sand dunes and dune slacks are:

.

Karst

Karst, inland cliffs and scarps

The Burren

Over 70% of Ireland's 900 native species occur in

Mediterranean species, and calcicole and calcifuge species. The area is dominated by bare rock and rendzina

soils.

Woodland

Woodland plants include

woody nightshade. Woods dominated by oak and birch, with lesser amounts of rowan, holly, hazel, yew and aspen are called western oakwoods and occur principally in the uplands of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.^[2] They are temperate rainforests

.

Artificial habitats

Quarries, gravel and sand pits, roads and railways, field boundaries, walls, waste ground and rubbish tips contain such plant species as

rosebay willowherb, great willowherb and wall pennywort

.

Cultivated ground (arable and horticultural land)

Julie A. Fossitt gives a habitat classification.[10]

Conservation

Threats to the flora include agriculture, drainage, housing developments, golf courses, mowing of roadside verges and introduced species. Conservation agencies include the National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ireland), the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. There is a Threatened Species Programme at the National Botanic Gardens. There was also a range of Non-Governmental Organisations in Ireland dedicated to preserving plant habitats such as the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust and the Native Woodland Trust.

Herbaria

Major

herbaria are conserved at the National Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum

.

See also

• Atlases of the flora and fauna of Britain and Ireland
• National Parks in the Republic of Ireland
• List of Special Areas of Conservation in Northern Ireland
• British National Vegetation Classification - broadly applicable but see Fossitt (2000).^[10]
• Trees of Britain and Ireland
• List of the orchids of Ireland
• Landforms of Ireland Category:Landforms of Ireland
• Lusitanian flora
• Invasion biology terminology

History of botany in Ireland

• Topographia Hibernica An early (1180) account of the flora by Gerald of Wales.
• Thomas Dix Hincks On early Contributions to the Flora of Ireland; with Remarks on Mr. Mackay's Flora Hibernica Annals and Magazine of Natural History 6: 1-12 continued 126-135 (1841)[1] and [2]
• Caleb Threlkeld
• John Templeton
• Thomas Coulter
• Clare Island Survey

Further reading

• David Cabot, 2009 Ireland Collins
  ISBN 978-0-00-730859-0
  Natural history of Ireland biological history, geology and climate, habitats and nature conservation.Flora and fauna.
• Curtis, T. G. F & Thompson R., 2009 The Orchids of Ireland National Museums Northern Ireland
  ISBN 978-0-900761-50-8
• Curtis, T. G. F. and McGough, H. N. (1988). The Irish Red Data Book. 1: Vascular Plants. The Stationery Office, Dublin.
• Declan Doogue and Carsten Krieger, 2010 The wild flowers of Ireland : the habitat guide Dublin : Gill & Macmillan
  ISBN 9780717146611
• Fitzgerald Interactive Flora of the Burren, Ireland Interactive CD
  ISBN 978-90-75000-97-9 photographs and information on dicotyledon plants of the Burren, the Aran Islands and to the east of Connemara
• Nelson, E. C. & Walsh, W. F. 1991. The Burren: a companion to the wildflowers of an Irish limestone wilderness. Aberystwyth & Bonis: Boethius Press & The Conservancy of The Burren.
• Nelson, E. C., 2008 Wild Plants of The Burren and the Aran Islands. New enlarged edition Collins Press
  ISBN 978-1-905172-67-2
• Green, P.,2008 Flora of County Waterford National Botanic Gardens of Ireland
  ISBN 978-0-7557-7607-8
• O'Mahony, T.,2009 Wildflowers of Cork City and County Collins Press
  ISBN 978-1-84889-020-6
• McNeill, I., 2010 Flora of County Tyrone National Museums Northern Ireland
  ISBN 978-1-905989-17-1
• Morton, O. 1994. Marine Algae of Northern Ireland. Ulster Museum publication No. 271.
  ISBN 0900761288
• Preston C.D., 2007 Which vascular plants are found at the northern or southern edges of their European range in the British Isles? Watsonia 26: 253–26 pdf
• Reilly P. A., 2001 The Flora of County Cavan National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin
  ISSN 0790-0422
• Reynolds, S. C. P. (2002). A catalogue of alien plants in Ireland. pp. [4], 1–413. Dublin: National Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin.
• Scannell, M. J. P. & Synnott, D. M. (1987). Census catalogue of the flora of Ireland. A list of Pteridophyta,
  Angiospermae
  including all the native plants and established aliens known to occur in Ireland with the distribution of each species, and recommended Irish and English names. pp. [i]-xxvii, 1–171, map. Dublin: Stationery Office.
• Smith, A. J. E. The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland Cambridge University Press
  ISBN 0-521-54672-9

References

1. ^ D. A. Webb (1983). "The flora of Ireland in its European context". Journal of Life Sciences. 1983. Royal Dublin Society: 143–160. Archived from the original on 2017-11-20. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
2. ^ ^{a b} G.T. Higgins, J.R. Martin, P.M. Perrin NATIONAL SURVEY OF NATIVE WOODLAND IN IRELAND March 2004
3. ^ Byrnes, Emmet. A History of Woodland Managementin Ireland: an Overview (PDF). Native Woodland Scheme Information Note. Vol. 2. Woodlands of Ireland.
4. ^ "Irish Peatland Conservation Council". Archived from the original on 2010-09-21. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
5. GBIF
   ) Node
6. JSTOR 20494442
   .
7. ^ "Sand Dune Country Report Ireland".
8. ISBN 978-0-521-23395-8
   .
9. National University of Ireland, Dublin
   .
10. ^
    ISBN 1-901137-27-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2010-09-11.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flora of Ireland.

• Habitas.org: Flora of Northern Ireland
• Habitas.org: Lichen of Ireland
• National Biodiversity Network: Distribution Maps — (ongoing project).
• The Flora of Ireland National Botanic Gardens, Dublin — overview and downloadable free lists of
  vascular plants, Bryophyta, and Characeae
  .
• Red Data List Vascular Plants of Ireland^{[permanent dead link]}
• BiodiversityIreland.ie: National Biodiversity Data Centre — (Waterford)
• Herbaria United — choose Ireland from the country menu to view digital images of 3000+ herbarium specimens collected in Ireland.
• Species.ie: Irish Species Register — access the lists via the Taxonomy Browser.
• Biological Records Centre.uk: Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora — access by species.
• Irish Wildflowers website — very well planned with species listed A–Z, by habitat, by flowering time, and by colour + "amateur" images rich.
• Burrenbeo.com: Ecology learning library Archived 2010-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Fieldmycology.net: Fungal Records Database for Britain and Ireland
• Northern Ireland Fungus Group — image rich gallery.
• National Parks and Wildlife Service of Ireland
• BSBI Maps
• Pleistocene History
• UCD Publications on boglands