Rare plant thrives at nature reserve

Sedges are grass-like plants that thrive in wetland areas

A plant species thought to be lost for nearly 100 years has flowered with nearly 2,000 feathery spikes at a nature reserve near York.

Ecologists said they were astounded in April to come across a sudden and exuberant display of the slender sedge plant population at Askham Bog.

The species was thought lost from the reserve in 1930, and was rediscovered in 2021by Alastair Fitter, Emeritus Professor of Ecology at the University of York and trustee at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Prof Fitter said: “The likely trigger for this mass flowering is the very wet winter we’ve just had and the part of the bog where slender sedge grows still has standing water in early May."

Slender sedge often grows in the water itself

Slender sedge is still quite widespread in the hills of northern and western Britain, but most lowland populations have been lost as a result of drainage.

Its rediscovery in 2021 brought the number of known sedges at Askham Bog to 22 species – a third of all British sedge species.

Prof Fitter said: “The rediscovery of a large population of this sedge at Askham Bog suggests that it has survived for nearly 100 years without being noticed by the large numbers of regularly-visiting scientists, probably because it has not flowered."

A single flowerhead was found in 2023 but this is the first mass flowering in living memory.

Askham Bog Nature Reserve is managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Askham Bog is Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s founding reserve.

It is home to a diverse range of plants and animals with over 5% of all British species recorded there.

The trust said it had been working hard to make the bog wetter for many years and other species thought lost from the site had been recorded in the last 10 years.

Prof Fitter said: “If we can bring the water level back up to where it used to be that would benefit other lost species such as crested buckler fern, last seen over 100 years ago and now extinct in Yorkshire, and help restore the bog to its former glory.

"Despite many years of study and visits here, Askham Bog continues to surprise me.

"Who knows what we might find and what might appear unexpectedly from the depths of the bog if Askham Bog is given a chance to recover?”

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].