Hastings Country Park is home to one of the rarest plants in UK

Fairlight Glen at Hastings Country Park is home to Dumortier’s liverwort - one of the rarest plants in the UK and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ‘Red List’ of endangered species.
Rare Plant SUS-200602-120952001Rare Plant SUS-200602-120952001
Rare Plant SUS-200602-120952001

The plant, a species of bryophyte, is in decline world-wode but thriving in the Hastings Cliffs to Pett Beach Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The IUCN has assessed the plant as under threat from eutrophication (excessive richness of nutrients in a body of water), and pollution of water

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Save Ecclesborne Glen group say the proposed Hastings Borough Council solar park development at the top of Fairlight Glen could cause an additional threat to the plant.

The photograph here, which has red arrows to indicate male plants and white arrows to indicate female, was taken on January 28. Fairlight Glen was assessed recently as having ‘a magnificent population’ of this very rare liverwort by bryologist Dr Des Callaghan of Bryophyte Surveys Ltd on behalf of Natural England.