Hartwort Tordylium maximum discovered on Tilbury Marshes
Tim Gardiner Environment Agency, Fisheries, Recreation & Biodiversity (FRB),
Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich, IP3 9JD, tim.gardiner@environment-
agency.gov.uk
The value of Tilbury Marshes and the Thames Terrace grasslands has long been
recognised by Essex naturalists. The arable land to the north of Tilbury is a large
flood storage area (FSA), with a 0.5 m high bank protecting the town from freshwater
flooding. This FSA used to be a 'rich' wildlife habitat before many of the grazing
marshes were ploughed up after World War II and turned into arable fields, therefore
reducing their biodiversity value. However, the FSA is criss-crossed by field ditches
and banks. It was on one of these banks, that houses a massive sewer pipe, that I came
across the endangered plant, Hartwort Tordylium maximum (see Plate 3), on 3rd June
2009.
The plant, which is found at only three sites in the UK (including the aforementioned
flood storage area), was well known to Essex botanists in the late 1800s (Adams,
1999). Eyre de Crespigny writing in 1875 commented that he had found Hartwort "in
considerable abundance on ditch banks at Tilbury". Ditches and field borders are
still its main habitats and it is listed in the British Red Data Book as Endangered
(account written by Ken Adams), but sadly has an absence of legal protection, which
makes you wonder what a plant has to do to earn its stripes.
There were several hundred Hartwort plants on the edge of the sewer embankment
(approximate grid reference: TQ 651771), which looked like it had been uncut for
many years. Getting through the long grass and scrub was worth it though to find the
holy grail of the Tilbury area. The other known sites are near Broom Hill (a Local
Wildlife Site), about 1 km to the north of the foul sewer bank, and at Benfleet Downs
near Hadleigh (Adams, 1999). I recently visited a former site for the plant at Benfleet
Sewage Works. Hartwort was last found here in 1984, but I could find no trace of it, it
has probably disappeared due to disturbance from the users of the BMX track and
scrub encroachment.
The decline of this plant since the 1800s has been severe, and it now clings on in the
East Thames corridor, somewhat precariously. The wildlife value of Tilbury FSA is
very high and development pressures must be resisted.
Reference
Adams, K. (1999) Flora of the Lower Thames Valley Part 1. Tordylium maximum L.
Hartwort. Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16: 75-78.
14
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 60, September 2009