I was a bit suspicious of this, because the UK is odd in that most of the plants are not truly native (but have been here a long time).
It is genuine, though - the report download is available:
I was also somewhat suspicious when it said “Wolfsbane is a native plant found throughout the UK”
Suspect you would be rather lucky to find that as it has only been found in 8 grid squares in recent years and anyway BSBI also says it is actually a neophyte
Stace says Aconitum napellus is native, but only to southwest England and South Wales, with a very sparse distrubution, Two other taxa are introduced and naturalised.
Interesting, that does not really match up with the map on BSBI website but either way the statement on the BBC website is wrong, perhaps a picture editor found a nice photo and wanted to justify it.
As rain (snow) has stopped play here, I’m about to actually read the document.
The Guardian has it like this:
The Grauniad reporter has confused arable wildflowers with grassland wildflowers.
Anyway, the BBC headline would be more accurate as “non-native species outnumber natives”, which is still ambiguous, but nearer to accuracy. Among plants in the wild non-native species have on average more restricted distributions and smaller populations. By actual numbers of individuals and biomess I expect that native species are still the larger proportion. Is there any non-native species that could compete with the expanses of heather moor? If you add agricultural and forestry species, then Triticum aestivum, Zea mays, Solanum tuberosum and Picea sitchensis are not native, and are present in great quantity.
To my surprise Metro (source of bad weather reporting) Alien species of plants overtake native ones in Britain | Metro News has a better headline.
Even by
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Interesting gets into the largest biomass of other groups e.g. pheasants greater total biomass than any other uk bird species (perhaps other than chickens)?
British Wildlife summarised the numbers:
Some 47 million birds released annually
Around 11 million birds shot
Most corpses left in situ (money is in the shooting, not the meat), including several thousand tonnes of lead shot
About 5 million roadkills
That’s a lot of lead…
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In June 2022 this report seemed to indicate progress.
“aiming to achieve a Government ban on lead ammunition in 2023.”
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“Lead pollution from ammunition kills up to 100,000 waterbirds each year in the UK alone, with birds ingesting spent lead pellets left in habitats. A further 200,000 - 400,000 birds are left suffering the health impacts of lead poisoning including lower resistance to disease and lesser ability to breed. Despite there being some current restrictions on the use of lead shot in the UK, field testing in England by WWT shows the proportion of birds ingesting lead has not significantly decreased since legislation was introduced. [1] Compliance with both legal restrictions and a wider voluntary ban are poor.”
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We don’t tolerate lead in our petrol, in paint or in toys, so why do we still allow thousands of tonnes to be blasted across the countryside each year?
The public consultation ended Nov2022.
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