HRL Newsletter

March 2021

A Rare Plant In Our Midst

Autumn Squill growing at Moulsey Hurst (as Hurst Park was then known) was mentioned in the 1818 edition of “An Arrangement of British Plants”. There are occasional records from then until the mid-1900s, but a very long absence until it was eventually rediscovered here in 2015.  Thanks to sympathetic mowing regimes introduced by Elmbridge Council and Hurst Riverside Lands it is now flourishing, with 40 plants being recorded in the Hurst Park SNCI in 2017 and another 9 on an area of grass in Bedster Gardens.  It is a small, rare plant most usually found on the coast, and Hurst Park is the only recorded location for it in Surrey.

Here is an extract and line drawing of the plant

And finally a description of the plant and where it is to be found

Many thanks to Mick Rock for his contribution to our site.