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Volunteers monitoring rare field wormwood plants at at London Road Industrial Estate in Brandon
- Credit: Jo Jones
One of the country s rarest and most threatened wild plants has astounded conservationists by thriving within a Breckland industrial estate.
Field wormwood grows at London Road Industrial Estate in Brandon, on a 1,000sqm patch of land described as one of the tiniest nature reserves in England .
Populations of the rare plant have been monitored closely for years by the Breckland Flora Group, a band of enthusiastic volunteers co-ordinated by nature charity Plantlife.
Their most recent results have shown an astounding increase in numbers, with a count of 85 flowering plants compared to just two in 2019. Non-flowering plant numbers have trebled from 100 to 303.
BBC News
Published
image captionThe wormwood moonshiner beetle feeds at night on the rare field wormwood plant
One of the country s rarest and most threatened wild plants has astounded conservationists by thriving on an industrial-estate nature reserve.
The field wormwood plants grow on one of the tiniest reserves in England in Brandon, Suffolk.
Botanists and volunteers of the group Plantlife said the number of flowering plants had rocketed from two in 2019, to 85 at the latest count.
Plantlife said traffic at the site kept hungry deer and rabbits away.
image copyrightJo Wood
image captionA volunteer helping to mark out the rare wormwood plants at the reserve in Brandon, Suffolk