Context
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) can be notified if
they include qualifying features under the flowering plants
and ferns criteria outlined in section 3 of Chapter 11 'Vascular plants
(flowering plants, ferns and their allies)' of the
Guidelines for Selection of Biological SSSIs. In
Northern Ireland, ASSIs are selected on a very similar basis – the
Guidelines
for the Selection of Biological ASSIs in Northern Ireland is an
addendum to the SSSI guidelines rather than an
alternative.
Guidance for site selection is
designed to give particular attention to the rarer and more
threatened species. The more common species tend to form
plant communities which are the basis for selection for habitat or
vegetation types, though such selection will also include some of
the rarer species.
Sites can be notified for individual
species for: species listed on Schedule 8 (plants) of the Wildlife
and Countryside Act, 1981; Red Data Book (RDB) species, endemics,
non-endemics threatened in Europe, declining species and species at
the edge of their range; and microspecies and hybrids.
Sites may also be notified for
combinations of species, based on a scoring system of species
occurring in 1-100 10km squares within Great Britain (encompassing
RDB nationally rare and nationally scarce species).
If sites with particularly good
species lists are not already selected for their habitat
importance or for presence of rare or scarce species, such
floristic assemblages can then qualify for selection where a
locality has 75% or more of the total vascular plant species list
for a community type of the National Vegetation Classification
(NVC).
At present there are 115 vascular
plants (flowering plants and ferns) listed on Schedule 8
(plants) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. This
schedule is reviewed at five-yearly intervals, and therefore any
additions or deletions should be taken into consideration.
Under Annex II of the EC Habitats
Directive, the following vascular plants qualify as features for
the selection of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in the UK:
Killarney fern Trichomanes speciosum, shore dock Rumex
rupestris, marsh saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus,
creeping marshwort Apium repens, early gentian
Gentianella anglica, floating water-plantain Luronium
natans, slender naiad Najas flexilis, lady`s-slipper
orchid Cypripedium calceolus and fen orchid Liparis
loeselii.