Alien plants near Thruxton, North Hampshire (v.c. 12)

摘要

In BSBI News there is a long history of reports of remarkable numbers of different alien plants cropping up on areas of disturbed soil or rubbish tips. A recent example is given by Shaw (2008), and this report is in the same vein. In 2009, photos ofnumerous alien plants were sent to me by Miles Hodgkiss. He had taken them in a very large area of disturbed soil west of Thruxton, just south of a motor-racing track and airfield. In fact John Moon had recorded Nicandra physalodes (Apple-of-Peru) and Nicotiana chi sanderae (Garden Tobacco) in this area in 2005 and he thinks that the massive earth-moving now underway in the area had started nearly ten years ago. One intention, as well as providing a hard-core recycling facility, was to fill up the gap between the A303 and the Thruxton race-track with a mound so as to cut off views of the racing cars, as these were a distraction to drivers. That original mound is now well-vegetated, mainly with grasses, but still has a few surviving alien species such as Alchemilla mollis (Garden Lady's-mantle), Sisyrinchium striatum (Pale Yellow-eyed-grass), Persicaria amplexicaulis (Red Bistort) and Phuopsis stylosa (Caucasian Cross wort). However, recycling of huge quantities of builders' hardcore and soil from manysources still continues nearby, so there are large areas of transient habitat bursting with alien plants.