Abstract
Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. subsp. parviflora (Thuill.) Dumort was, to British and Irish botanists, a little known taxon prior to1988, and current distribution mapping shows a marked geographical recording bias. It is confirmed as being primarily a woodland taxon, at low altitudes; modal mean altitude 50-75 m AOD, with 97% of locations at ≤300 m AOD. A combination of woodland or shaded habitat, bright green narrow leaves, and delicate panicle, with small spikelets, is suggestive of subsp. parviflora. In combination, degree of leaf blade scabridity on the adaxial surface, appearance of papillae on flat surfaces of adaxial ridges of the leaf, and spikelet length, provide the most reliable means of distinguishing this subspecies from subsp. cespitosa. There is no reason to suspect that subsp. parviflora is increasing, rather it had previously been overlooked.
Highlights
In British and Irish Floras, Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P
Habitat Floras and other published accounts broadly agree on the habitat within which this subspecies occurs: woodland on heavy soils (Clapham et al 1987); woods & shady hedgerows (Stace 2019); woods & shady places, especially on heavy soils (Sell & Murrell 1996); lowland woods on heavy soils (Cope and Gray 2009); lowland woodland (Parnell and Curtis 2012); damp shady places on heavy soils (Hubbard 1984); shaded places in ancient woodland (McAllister 1998)
Of the 1550 records of D. cespitosa subsp. parviflora on the BSBI database (DDb), 150 records have some indication of habitat
Summary
In British and Irish Floras, Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Parviflora (Thuill.) Dumort, was first mentioned (at varietal level) in the first edition of the Flora of the British Isles (Clapham et al 1952). It was not until the more detailed account in the Plant Crib (McAllister 1988), that this taxon became more widely known, and there was a rapid increase in recording, as documented by records in the Distribution Database maintained by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (https://database.bsbi.org/), referred to as the ‘BSBI database’ (Fig. 1). I returned on 11th June, when several tussocks had ± open panicles, to collect specimens for closer examination, confirming that the plants were D. cespitosa subsp. North of the central belt, all but one of the post-1999 records are by the author or George Ballantyne
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