Snake’s-head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris (Liliaceae) in Britain: its distribution, habitats and status

Abstract

Snake’s-head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris L. is a scarce plant of unimproved meadows where it was formerly considered to be a native British species. A review of 593 British sites showed that 80% of British populations were located in other habitats where it had been planted or had established from introductions nearby. Of the 118 populations located in unimproved meadows 53 occurred in floodplain grassland in central and southeast England where it has long been considered to be native. However, recent evidence suggests that it is more likely to be a modern introduction (neophyte). It seems inconceivable that such an attractive plant would have been overlooked in the wild by herbalists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Furthermore, the rapid growth of introduced populations in meadows in Sweden and England has shown that Fritillary populations in Britain could have reached their present size in the 300 years since they were first recorded in the wild. Historical accounts prove that it was being grown for ornament in large gardens in the sixteenth century, from where it presumably escaped along rivers to colonise meadows downstream. Regardless of its status, however, it remains a much-loved and valued component of the British flora and a flagship species for the conservation of floodplain grasslands.

Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Fritillaria meleagris

“…The number of plants in populations vary considerably from site to site. Small populations are often under 200 plants but may range up to 2,000 plants (Walker, 2021). The largest British population occurs at North Meadow, Wiltshire, where an estimated million plants are present in some years (Wolstenholme, 2011).…”

“…obs.). The appearance of new colonies on floodplains well away from known populations suggests that long-distance dispersal in flood-waters can occur and this may be the origin of many of the floodplain populations along the River Thames in Britain (Walker, 2021). In Tula Oblast in Russia, establishment of new populations of the species was recorded along a small stream all originated from a single long-existing population located upstream (S.S. Isaev and T.I.…”

“…There is currently no fossil evidence to confirm the presence of F. meleagris in the British Isles before it was first reported from the wild in 1737 (Godwin, 1975;Pearman, 2017). Consequently, its origin has been the subject of considerable debate with two rival hypotheses as to when (and how) it arrived in the British Isles (Walker, 2021).…”

“…The number of flowers of Fritillaria meleagris recorded on Portholme meadow, Huntingdonshire, UK, since it was introduced in 1925; adapted from Walker (2021)…”

“…In Britain, Fritillaria meleagris is a Nationally Scarce plant (species which are found in between 16 and 100 hectads; hectad is an area 10 × 10 km square) that was considered to be native in wet, species‐rich eutrophic meadows on alluvial soils and gravels in lowland England (King & Wells, 1993; Wells, 1994). Most of these populations are located on the floodplains of the River Thames and its tributaries between Cirencester, Oxford and Reading with outlying populations in Suffolk, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Buckinghamshire although intentionally introduced populations occur in similar meadow habitats in other regions (Figure 3; Walker, 2021). Away from meadows F. meleagris has been widely planted as an ornamental and has readily naturalised throughout Great Britain in gardens, semi‐wild and wild locations such as roadsides, nature reserves, churchyards, cemeteries, the grounds of large houses and urban areas (Walker, 2021).…”