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IPAs in Scotland

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Author Dr Deborah Long with editorial comment from Ben McCarthy. Maps and data analysis by Beth Halski

Citation Plantlife (2015) Scotland’s Important Plant Areas Plantlife: Stirling

3Scotland’s Important Plant Areas

Foreword Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures Protection and management Threats Land use Planning and land use Land management Rebuilding healthy ecosystems Protected areas Better targeting of resources and support What’s next for Scotland’s IPAs? The last word

Cover – Glen Coe ©Laurie Campbell

IPA name Shetland Mainland Orkney Harris and Lewis Ben Mor, Assunt/Ichnadamph North Coast of Scotland Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Uists South West Skye Strathglass Complex Sgurr Mor Ben Wyvis Black Wood of Rannoch Moniack Gorge Rosemarkie to Shandwick Coast Dornoch Firth and Morrich More Culbin Sands and Bar Cairngorms Coll and Tiree Rum Ardmeanach Eigg Mull Oakwoods West Coast of Scotland Isle of Lismore

Glen Coe and Mamores Ben Nevis and the Grey Corries Rannoch Moor Breadalbane Mountains Ben Alder and Aonach Beag Crieff Woods Dunkeld-Blairgowrie Lochs Milton Wood Den of Airlie Colonsay Beinn Bheigier, Islay Isle of Arran Isle of Cumbrae Bankhead Moss, Beith Loch Lomond Woods Flanders Moss Roslin Glen Clearburn Loch Lochs and Mires of the Ale and Ettrick Waters South East Scotland Basalt Outcrops River Tweed Carsegowan Moss Merrick Kells

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Contents

4 Foreword

Foreword

On the edge of Europe and with the Atlantic crashing its shores, Scotland is home to a huge diversity of habitats that provide a haven to wildlife adapted to both the warm, dry continent and those that thrive in warmer, wet oceanic conditions.

Add to this our rich geology and Scotland really is a treasure chest.

Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are nature sites of exceptional botanical richness, supporting internationally significant wild plants. Just under 10% of Scotland is covered by IPAs, so recognising this kaleidoscopic diversity.

This treasure trove needs to be cherished and protected.

Why does Plantlife focus our conservation work on Important Plant Areas?

Careful management of the plant communities allows the ecosystems they drive to be more resilient and continue to provide key services such as clean water and carbon capture.

But our wild plants offer so much more than this – they are key to our heritage, our culture and our livelihoods. They represent our most iconic landscapes: Ben Lawers and the Breadalbane mountains, the machair of Harris and Tiree, the coastal grasslands of the north coast, home to Scottish primrose, and the Celtic rainforest of the west coast.

This report showcases the fantastic and awe-inspiring Important Plant Areas that we have in Scotland. It provides an insight into how we are working to celebrate their significance and deal with the pressures they face.

Together, we can build stronger and more resilient ecosystems and invest in Scotland’s future through its natural environment.

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IPA boundaries are identified using a two-stage process that maps:• Core areas where the qualifying species and

habitats are present. They may consist of a single area or several unconnected areas comprising a series of plant sites.

• Zones of opportunity are adjacent areas, into which the key species or habitats could expand, if the land management is supportive. These are shown as a series of zones around the core areas, filtered using key environmental factors that identify areas with the greatest potential for expansion.

Top right: Atlantic woodland at Taynish, in the West Coast IPA.

Bottom right: the sands at Huisnis, backed by machair and the Harris Hills beyond

Below: the Leans of Munsary on the banks of the Allt-nan Scaraig, part of the Caithness and Sutherland Peatland IPA.

Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures


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Adelanthus lindenbergianus, a moss commonly known as Lindenberg’s featherwort, only found on Beinn Bheigier IPA in Scotland.

Daltonia splachnoides, Irish daltonia, found in the Atlantic woodland in the West Coast of Scotland IPA.

Cerastium fontanum ssp. scoticum, Scottish mouse-ear, found in the Cairngorms.

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1. Anderson, S (2002) Identifying Important Plant Areas. www.plantlife.org.uk

8

Number and size of IPAsScotland is home to 47 IPAs, covering 698,703ha between them, 9% of the entire land cover. Scotland’s IPA network includes large mountain ranges, entire islands and coastal regions. Over 60% of the Scottish IPAs have an area of 1,000 or more hectares. Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands, Cairngorms and the West Coast IPAs are all larger than 100,000ha.

Qualifying criteriaIPAs have been identified using at least one of three standard, internationally agreed criteria: the presence of threatened species (examples pictured below), a very high diversity of species (see graphic opposite), and the presence of threatened habitats.1

IPAs can contain a wide range of habitats and species and are rarely identified on the presence of one type of plant or habitat or under a single criterion. For example, 81% of Scotland’s IPAs qualify because of the high species diversity and 68% qualify because they contain a threatened habitat. Eight IPAs qualify under all three criteria.


9Scotland Farmland ReportScotland’s Important Plant Areas 9

Alpine & sub-alpine grasslands7 IPAs

Surface standing waters9 IPAs

Coastal dune & sand habitats9 IPAs

Habitats with a large number of species-rich sites across Scotland

Inland cliffs, rock pavements & outcrops 10 IPAs

Broadleaved deciduous woodland 13 IPAs

Raised & blanket bogs9 IPAs

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2. Porley, R & Hodgetts, N (2005) Mosses and Liverworts. The New Naturalist Library, Collins. London.3. Love, J (2003) Machair. Scotland’s Living Landscapes. SNH. Battleby.

A typical woodland ravine in Argyll may contain as many as 200 species, which is comparable to the richest tropical rainforests...2

In Scotland, 27% of sites identified as exceptionally species-rich IPAs are broadleaved deciduous woodland. This is largely due to the high diversity of bryophytes and lichens found in these woodlands. Other species-rich habitats in Scotland include the Caledonian pinewoods, which lie at the intersection of the northern “boreal” zone, with habitats and species characteristic of Scandinavia, and the “temperate rainforest” zone, with species at home in very wet Atlantic woodland. This creates the special oceanic boreal forest, which is rare globally, and has highly unusual communities. A third type of species-rich landscape, typical of Scotland, is machair sites, which is home to a high diversity of coastal and sand dune plants. In a 1 metre square patch of typical machair, up to 45 species can be found.3

Scotland’s IPAs are also home to a wide range of habitat types.

Freshwater habitat types feature strongly in IPAs and include inland water habitats and bog and wetland habitat types. These sites are where we might find the slender naiad, Najus flexilis, and stoneworts – ancient unique underwater algae, many with a calcium carbonate structure, that only grow in very clean fresh and salt water.

Inland water

Bog & wetland

Grassland Scrub & heath

Forest Scree/rock /stone

Coastal & halophytic

Dune

Number of IPAs by threatened habitat type in Scotland


1514

12 12

9 9

5 5

Scotland’s Important Plant Areas

Major habitat

Total no. of IPAs

% of total IPAs (47)

100% cover

>49% or major cover

Cover 25% –49%

<25% or minor cover

unknown

Mire, Bog & Fen 24 51 0 17 0 4 3

Woodland & Forest 22 47 0 16 0 5 1

Inland Surface Water 22 47 0 9 0 9 4

Grassland & Tall Forb 21 45 0 9 0 6 6

Inland Unvegetated/Sparse 17 36 0 6 0 5 6

Heathland, Scrub, Tundra 17 36 0 12 1 2 2

Coastal 15 32 0 8 0 7 0

Marine 6 13 0 2 0 4 0

Constructed, industrial & other artificial habitats

5 11 0 0 0 5 0

Other 4 9 0 0 0 0 4

Cultivated, Agricult, Domestic 2 4 0 0 0 1 1

Major habitat types on IPAs

1111

Mire, Bog & Fen24 Total no. of IPAs17 >49% or major cover4 <25% or minor cover3 unknown

Woodland & Forest22 Total no. of IPAs16 >49% or major cover5 <25% or minor cover1 unknown

Heathland, Scrub, Tundra17 Total no. of IPAs12 >49% or major cover2 <25% or minor cover2 unknown

Grassland & Tall Forb22 Total no. of IPAs16 >49% or major cover5 <25% or minor cover1 unknown

Inland Surface Water22 Total no. of IPAs9 >49% or major cover9 <25% or minor cover4 unknown

96% of Scotland’s IPAs overlap, either wholly or in part, with some level of protected area designation: 311 nationally important SSSIs overlap with 43 IPAs, and 114 Special Areas of Conservation of European importance overlap with 24 IPAs. However, these statutory designations do not necessarily translate into protection for the plant communities for which the IPAs have been identified.

While an IPA may be recognised for its birds or geology in a site designation, its important plant communities are not necessarily included in that designation and therefore will not be managed or monitored.

12 Protection and management | Threats

Protection and management

No. of protected areas that overlap with the IPA network

No. of IPAs overlapping with the protected areas

Site of Special Scientific Interest

311 43

Special Area of Conservation

114 24

Special Protection Area 33 12

National Nature Reserve 48 16

National Park 4 4

Scotland’s Important Plant Areas 13

Threats

67% of Scotland’s IPAs have identified threats. Of these, the most frequent and significant threat is invasive species, including non-native species such as Rhododendron x superponticum. Invasive species have been listed as threats on 54% of IPAS in Scotland, 23% of these at a acute level.

This is in contrast to the rest of the UK IPA network where the most frequent and high impact threat to IPAs is the “abandonment of land or reduction of land management”, ie cessation or inappropriate management. “Agricultural intensification” also presents a significant threat, which in a Scottish context relates more to grazing pressures and affects 51% of IPAs. Burning affects about 34% of IPAs in Scotland. “Development”, which in a Scottish context, relates to recreation and/or tourism, also affects about 34%. At Beinn Bhegier, which has no site protection, both burning and grazing are identified as key threats.

Top 6 threats to Scotland’s IPAs

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The importance of landscape to Scotland’s image and economy is reflected in the high proportion of IPAs (83%) that list tourism and recreation as key activities.

Scotland’s IPAs are unique and varied. Each requires a different approach to provide a future for the plants that make these sites special. Since 2011, Plantlife has been working with land managers, owners and local communities to raise awareness of our IPAs and to help conserve them. Not only does this ensure continuity for these plant-rich habitats, it also works towards meeting Scotland’s commitments in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.4 While the Important Plant Areas concept has identified the very best places for plants across Scotland, the approach also brings a new set of solutions to common issues faced by important plant communities.

In 2010, the value to the economy of tourists touring and enjoying Scotland’s landscapes and scenery was £420 million per year (SNH Commissioned report 398). This vastly outweighs the amount of money being spent on conserving and managing these areas. With the condition of protected areas in favourable or recovering condition flatlining at 78% between 2010 and 2014, investing more of this income into the protection and management of these areas would conserve precious landscapes and nature and yield economic returns.

14 Land use

Land use

Top 5 land uses on Scotland’s IPAs

Land use Total IPAs 100% >49% or major

Cover 25%–49%

<25% or minor

unknown

Tourism/recreation 29 0 9 0 9 11

Agriculture (combined) 26 1 11 0 3 11

Nature conservation and research

25 0 11 0 5 9

Hunting 18 0 4 0 7 7

Forestry 13 0 4 0 5 4

4. Plant Link (2014) Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. A review of the UK’s progress towards 2020. www.plantlife.org.uk

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16 Planning and land use

Planning and land use

Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Issue: Lack of appropriate management

at a large enough scale.

Solution: Working in partnership and establishing long-term monitoring to measure impact of successful management

The Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Important Plant Area has a core area of 143,538ha, roughly 4% of the world’s blanket bog habitat. The IPA is the largest and most intact peat mass in the UK, three times larger than any other in Britain or Ireland, and the largest area of blanket bog in Europe. Beyond the Core Area, the Zone of Opportunity for this IPA incorporates a much wider zone, all of which supports the habitat for which the IPA was identified and in which IPA indicator species could spread, given peatland restoration and appropriate management.

Restoration of peatlands and their hydrological conditions conserves peatland plants and mosses, locks up carbon and regulates flooding. A healthy peatland is one where wet conditions are increasing and peat is building. However, effective restoration must be done at a large enough scale to rebuild entire ecosystems. In Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands, restoration means removing planted trees and blocking drains. The scale of management needed to restore a peatland water catchment can only be achieved by working in partnership with neighbouring land owners because peatland catchments cross many ownership boundaries.

Land within the IPA is managed by Forestry Commission Scotland (33,325 ha) and NGOs, including Plantlife, own and manage another 21,500 ha. The rest is privately owned. These privately owned areas are largely managed for stalking and grazing. At Plantlife’s Munsary

Peatlands reserve (left), the European protected species marsh saxifrage grows in its largest known colony in Scotland, alongside scarce plants including cranberry and bog orchid. As well as being home for these species, key roles for the IPA in future focus on its role as a huge and growing carbon store, as accumulating peat captures carbon.

Between 2001–2005, the Peatland Partnership, which included Plantlife, RSPB, Forestry Commission and SNH, blocked drains and removed large areas of conifer plantation. This enabled Sphagnum to grow and peat regeneration to begin. At the same time, a monitoring mechanism was set up at Munsary Peatlands to record peat recovery and the impact it had on plant communities and carbon capture across the site.

Monitoring since 2002 has shown that species characteristic of increasingly wet conditions, particularly those species that colonise a bog surface after damage, soft bog moss (Sphagnum tenellum) for example, have increased along with other sphagnum species that indicate active peat forming such as Sphagnum cuspidatum and S. capillifolium. This trend is further reflected in the change from ling to cross-leaved heath. The 1,300 hectares of peatland at Munsary are now recovering and reverting to active blanket bog, providing habitat for a wide range of bog species, regulating water flow and capturing carbon.

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West Coast IPA Issue: Knowing what to do where and tackling

invasive non-native species

Solution: Enabling land managers to act

The West Coast IPA (right) is the most extensive IPA in the UK. It has two distinct elements, both of which are internationally important habitats: Atlantic woodland and oceanic heath. These woodlands and heathlands occupy the west coast of mainland Scotland from Kinlochbervie in the north to Crossaig Glen in Kintyre.

The IPA process has mapped core areas for both habitat types along with zones of opportunity. These maps provide a clear spatial illustration of where land should be managed as oceanic heath and where land should be managed for Atlantic woodland. Based on the ecological requirements of each habitat type, these maps are used to provide (a) precise advice to land managers on which habitat will do best on a particular piece of land, (b) where habitat fragments can be reconnected through habitat restoration and (c) which habitat should be favoured to gain the best ecological results. This provides clear ecological reasoning for the difficult question of where to plant trees or not and where muirburn should be conducted, or not.

Mapping the IPA for both types of habitat has been a key part of Plantlife’s species management programme. The maps help identify where land could be targeted for management and habitat restoration or creation. Where suitable options are available under the Scottish Rural Development Progamme, this approach can help identify which options could be useful. For land managers this can help them identify what they can do where. The next step then is to help identify what needs to be done.

There are two key threats to the West Coast IPA: the spread of invasive Rhododendron x superponticum in the woodland and muirburn on the oceanic heath. Both these threats can be managed through appropriate management. For oceanic heath, it is a case of identifying where muirburn would have a devastating impact on species and sites and avoiding those areas. For woodland, the management decision-making is more complex.

Introduced as a garden plant in 1763, and first recorded in the wild in 1894, Rhododendron x superponticum has since spread along the entire west coast of Scotland. It takes over the understory of Atlantic woodlands, shading out internationally important communities of bryophytes and lichens. These species grow in very damp and humid woodlands and are limited to Scotland, parts of the extreme western seaboard of Europe and the Atlantic islands including the Azores and Madeira. Species such as spotty featherwort, Wilson’s filmy fern, deceptive featherwort and Hutchin’s hollywort have their world headquarters in Scotland.

Rhododendron removal takes many forms, some of which are less destructive for these mosses, liverworts and lichens than others. Plantlife, with Forest Research, has developed guidance for land managers who want to remove rhododendron without damaging these internationally important communities. This guidance includes advice on how to identify and manage the habitat. Plantlife demonstrates the approach through regular demonstration days on sites throughout the IPA, working with land managers to support them in managing and creating this habitat for these species – providing the potential for them to spread and become more resilient to climate change.

18 Land management

Land management

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20 Rebuilding healthy ecosystems | Protected areas

Rebuilding healthy ecosystemsCairngorms Pinewoods Issue: Joining up fragmented habitats

Solution: Using ecological maps to prioritise where to restore and create habitat

Scotland has 11 Important Plant Areas for Caledonian pinewood. These are all located in and around the Grampian mountains and include pinewoods in the Cairngorms, the Moray coast, Strathglass and Glen Affric, and the Black Wood of Rannoch. Home to a range of flowers and mosses and liverworts, these pinewoods support species like twinflower, juniper, wintergreens and ostrich plume feathermoss. Plantlife’s maps of the core areas and the zones of opportunity identify where to restore Caledonian woodland and where to plant tree species like pine, birch and juniper, to connect up isolated fragments across the IPA and help to increase habitat available to these species in future, building their resilience to ongoing environmental change.

This approach contributes to ongoing landscape-scale plans to create a much larger network of Caledonian pinewoods in the Cairngorms National Park. Here there are a number of public, private and NGO land owners working to restore and expand the forest, creating a connected expanse of native woodland not seen since the end of the 19th century (Dunlop 1997).

The Cairngorms National Park Authority recently published the Capercaillie Framework report to highlight the importance of connected forest expansion and identify priority areas to target Caledonian pinewood expansion to benefit capercaillie. A forest managers group, led by the National Park, brings together land holdings to collaborate on a landscape scale and across river catchments, including Mar Lodge, Glenfeshie, Rothiemurchus, Glenmore and Abernethy.

Caledonian pinewood consists of trees, plants, bryophytes, lichens and fungi. Without healthy plants, the pinewoods are unable to support species like capercaillie. To conserve the pinewoods, and all their species, it makes sense to use the IPA concept and the advice it provides through management and demonstration days. Such landscape-scale planning, based on plant conservation, is central to the drive in Scotland to conserve not just habitats and species, but also the ecosystem services they provide.

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Protected areas

Clearburn Loch Issue: Inadequate protection for key plant sites and habitats,

leading to their damage or loss

Solution: Making the designated site network work harder for plants, mosses, liverworts and lichens by identifying those sites not currently afforded protection

Clearburn Loch is one of the best remaining small lochs in the Borders. It has been identified as an IPA because of the rich wild flower and bryophyte diversity there. In 2012 the loch remained one of the few relatively unaffected by run-off from conifer planted hills in the Borders, and is home to the largest population of holy grass in southern Scotland.


However, its location in the Borders and its lack of protection, means that the site and its plant populations are in danger of being lost. Recent applications to plant adjacent hillsides could reduce the status of this loch to the same status as most other lochs in the Borders, and would impact negatively on the internationally important plant and bryophyte communities there.

Botanical assessments for IPAs (see pages 8–10) pick up internationally important sites that are not designated and identifies designated sites where the plant interest is not included in the designation. Of the 47 IPAs in Scotland, only two have no protection at all. These are subject to the increasing pressures of afforestation at Clearburn Loch and to muirburn at Beinn Bheigier. Without better protection the internationally important flora is susceptible to direct or indirect negative impacts.

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22 Better targeting of resources and support

Better targeting of resources and supportSouth-east Scotland Basalt Outcrops Issue: Widely spread, small sites that cannot

be monitored by government agencies

Solution: Increased local community awareness and volunteer involvement

The south-east Scotland Basalt Outcrops are a string of six separate rocky crags inland of the Forth estuary. These crags are extinct volcanoes with a distinctive and rare lichen flora. The lichens grow on the exposed rock crags and are surrounded largely by rough grazing, except at Minto Crags, which supports policy woodland. The sites are grazed by a range of animals including sheep and ponies. Visitors regularly access four of the sites.

Berwick Law and Trapain Law are located close to the towns of North Berwick, East Linton and Haddington. They are popular short walks and IPA walks have been developed at both to show local communities and visitors the amazing plants and nature there.

Berwick Law is protected as an SSSI, although the citation and management statements do not refer to the lichen assemblage. This means that they remain unmonitored and are not taken into account in management decisions. This leaves the rare lichens vulnerable to decline.

Since 2010, Plantlife has been training local volunteer Flora Guardians to monitor the populations of Ramalina polymorpha the bird-perch gristle-lichen, a near threatened species limited to bird perch rocks. Volunteers were trained to recognise this species of Ramalina from other similar sea ivory lichens and to monitor change in lichen populations over time using transects and photographic survey. Eight local volunteers are looking at the impacts of grazing, and now include lichens in their annual monitoring. Their work is showing us that while the lichen populations are still present, longer grass, resulting from rabbit control, is having a negative impact. We are using these volunteer data to help the land managers assess grazing levels at the site with the aim of adjusting them to ensure a future for the bird- perch gristle-lichen.

Local communities are keen to engage and as volunteer Flora Guardians are becoming custodians of their local IPA. Strong local support for Important Plant Areas is shown by the enthusiasm and the data these volunteers provide.

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Local volunteers are crucial to the future of rare plants on Scotland’s remote IPAs


24 What’s next for Scotland’s IPAs?

What’s next for Scotland’s IPAs?

Planning and land useIPAs are critical in planning and establishing Natural Ecological Networks in Scotland. Based on consistent internationally applied criteria and with significant expert stakeholder input, IPAs identify where to strengthen and rebuild Scotland’s natural networks. Proper integration into land use planning will be crucial in building effective and resilient ecological networks across Scotland.

Next steps:

• Recognise IPAs in national planning policy

• Integrate IPAs into the National Ecological Network as an essential part of network planning and management

• Use IPAs to prioritise land use in situations where the choice of land use to build healthy ecosystems needs to be based on independent advice and sound ecology

• Base land use decisions on well understood ecosystems. IPAs provide this understanding for plants and fungi, the basis of all ecosystems. This works towards meeting the Scottish Government’s targets in the 2020 Challenge5

We know where our IPAs are and which species and habitats are found there. However, to ensure a future for them, we need to take a number of steps:

Healthy ecosystemsEcosystems only provide ecosystems services when they function properly. Plants and fungi are fundamental to ecosystems and the services they provide and should be the focus of efforts to strengthen and rebuild Scotland’s ecosystems. IPAs provide the best chances of success in building healthy ecosystems and preserving ecosystem services.

Next steps:

• Lead on working towards the commitments Scotland has already made in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the CBD Strategy for Biodiversity, by allocating a level of leadership and resources to enable progress to be made.

These targets include:

• Protect and manage at least 75% of our IPAs effectively (Target 5 of GSPC)

• Halve and bring to zero, where feasible, the rate of loss of natural habitats and reduce significantly habitat degradation and fragmentation. (Target 5 of the CBD Strategy for Biodiversity6)

• Manage areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry sustainably, ensuring conservation of biodiversity (Target 5 of CBD Strategy for Biodiversity).

5. Scottish Government (2013) 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s biodiversity. Pages 11 & 43. www.scotland.gov.uk 6. UN CBD (2010) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 – 2020 – Aichi targets. www.cbd.int/targets/

Protected areasProtected areas are a key element of wider habitat networks. The protected area network however is failing wild plants.7 Managing protected sites in IPAs with wild plants in mind would maximise the conservation impact of the protected site network and would provide the foundations of a truly sustainable site network.

Next steps:

• Ensure that protected sites that overlap with IPAs are managed with their internationally important flora in mind

• Manage IPAs for their plant interest, meeting Target 4 of the GSPC

• Use IPAs to target wider habitat restoration in and around protected areas to improve ecosystem health and combat fragmentation (Scottish Government 2020 Challenge).

Lack of resources and supportReversing the decline in wild plants in the wider countryside and building healthy ecosystems to continue to provide fundamental ecosystems services is not a cheap option. With budgets under constant strain, it would be impossible for government to achieve this alone. Building support amongst local communities for their IPA, and involving local communities in their conservation and monitoring, is crucial in making progress.

Next steps:

• Celebrate local wild plant places through IPA walks, activities and volunteering opportunities

• Train volunteers to collect data that reflects ongoing change. This information can be effectively used to inform ongoing management so a positive change can be made, with local land managers and communities working together.

7. Plantlife (2009) The Ghost Orchid Declaration. Saving the UK’s wild flowers today. www.plantlife.org.uk


26 The last word

The last word

Conserving IPAs doesn’t just conserve plants. Conserving IPAs protects the ecosystem services we all rely on, and ensures future generations can enjoy Scotlands unique landscapes like machair and Caledonian pinewoods.

Scotland’s Important Plant Areas 27Machair grassland, Isle of Harris, Harris & Lewis IPA © Damian Entwhistle/CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic

We are PlantlifePlantlife is the organisation that is speaking up for our wild flowers, plants and fungi. From the open spaces of our nature reserves to the corridors of government, we’re here to raise their profile, to celebrate their beauty, and to protect their future.

Wild flowers and plants play a fundamental role for wildlife, and their colour and character light up our landscapes. But without our help, this priceless natural heritage is in danger of being lost.

Join us in enjoying the very best that nature has to offer.

Patron: HRH The Prince of Wales

Plantlife Scotland, Balallan House 24 Allan Park, Stirling FK8 2QG Tel: 01786 478509 [email protected]

www.plantlife.org.uk

Plantlife is a charitable company limited by guarantee, Company No. 3166339. Registered in England and Wales, Charity No. 1059559. Registered in Scotland, Charity Number: SC038951. ISBN number. 978-1-910212-14-1

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