FERN GAZ. 19(8):297-306. 2014 297 MONITORING CHANGE IN ISOETES HISTRIX BORY (ISOETACEAE) AT ITS NORTHERN DISTRIBUTIONAL LIMIT D.A. PEARMAN 1 , F. J. RUMSEY 2 & I.J. BENNALLICK 3 1Algiers, Feock, Truro, Cornwall, TR3 6RA, UK. E-mail:
[email protected] 2Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. E-mail
[email protected] 3Lower Polmorla, St Wenn, Bodmin, Cornwall, PL30 5PE, UK. Key words: Isoetes , Quillwort, Cornwall, conservation, survey ABSTRACT A re-survey of the threatened Land Quillwort ( Isoetes histrix Bory) at its northernmost range extent on the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, indicates a massive decline (>90%) in total population size since 1982 with the loss of several major sub-populations. The factors responsible for this are considered and climatic changes, particularly in the pattern of rainfall, and management practices, such as the reduction in grazing, are implicated in its decline. INTRODUCTION The genus Isoetes is a cosmopolitan one, comprising about 80 species of specialised heterosporous lycopods growing predominantly as submerged aquatics, although some species occur only as terrestrials in seasonally inundated habitats. Isoetes histrix Bory (Land Quillwort) is a small summer-deciduous perennial, growing from a ‘corm’. Its specific name derives from the rather spinose persistent leaf bases which are typically but not invariably produced and whose function, whether purely protective, or perhaps to aid in dispersal, is open to conjecture. It is a plant of open, often trampled, bare shallow soils, frequently overlying rock, which are wet and preferably flooded in winter, but dry in summer.