Skip to main content

WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

54.) GENTIANACEAE - Gentian family

GENTIANACEAE - Gentian family

CENTAURIUM Hill

  • Centaurium erythraea Rafn (Common Centaury) / Grassland Uncommon Well-distributed and locally frequent in dry open species-rich grassland, well-drained pastures, heaths, open woods, tracks, old quarries, scree slopes, roadsides, railway banks and dunes; predominantly overlaying Carboniferous and Oolitic limestone. Typically pink but plants "With white flowers by the roadside between Banwell and Sidcot...1834; Thos. Clark. And on Worle Hill, 1897. Ursleigh Hill, 1904." (White, 1912).

  • var. erythraea Grassland Uncommon The nominate plant with the same range and distribution as the species.

  • var. capitatum (Willd. ex Cham.) Melderis Coasts Extinct A coastal plant with only historical records but it may be over-looked. "A condensed dwarf form, the product of exposure and close nibbling by rabbits, has been observed on Broadfield Down...and Sand Point. It is the var. capitata." (White, 1912). It differs from the nominate plant in being very dwarfed with dense inflorescences and has stamens inserted at the base rather than at the apex of the corolla-tube.

  • Centaurium erythraea x C. pulchellum = C. x *ubsdellii T.C.G. Rich (Common x Lesser Centaury) Grassland Extinct Was recorded growing with both parents from cliffs between Clevedon and Portishead in 1993 by D.T. Holyoak. The C. pulchellum* parent hasn't been recorded here in since 2001.

  • Centaurium littorale (Turner ex Sm.) Gilmour (ssp. littorale) (Seaside Centaury) Grassland Extinct Recorded at Old Down, near Olveston in 1956; Oldbury in 1956; and Thornbury in 1956 by Thornbury County Secondary school.

[No doubt mistakes for C. erythraea. Get rid!]

  • Centaurium pulchellum (Sw.) Druce (Lesser Centaury) - Grassland Very Rare Restricted to short calcareous grassland and rocky coastal cliffs. Always a rare plant in our area but has only been recorded on six occasions in recent years (all from the south of the region): Dolbury Warren in 2000 by R.J. Higgins; Ladye Bay, Clevedon in 2001 by S. Parker; Long Ashton Bypass in 2004 by J. Dowell and again in 2020s by ? [BSBI record]; Portbury Wharf in 2007 by P. Millman; East of Redfield Hill, near Oldland Common in 2008 by J. Dowell; and Sand Point in 2020s by ? [BSBI record].

BLACKSTONIA Huds.

  • Blackstonia perfoliata (L.) Huds. (Yellow-wort) / Grassland Uncommon Well-distributed but restricted to thin well-drained soils on Carboniferous limestone and Oolite, including: open calcareous grassland, old quarries, limestone scree, cliffs, coasts, stony and hilly pastures, dry sun-parched banks, and occasionally old brownfield sites. It is often associated with Bee Orchid and at core sites such as the wildflower protection zone on the Downs it varies greatly in abundance from year to year; sometimes showing just a few plants and other times appearing in the hundreds. It has declined due to loss of brownfield sites and its open habitat requirements becoming scrubbed over. The first record made locally and nationally was from Lobel (1570) "Centaureum luteum...Angliae locis...collibus urbi Bristoiae eminentibus inter segetes itidem" [Yellow centaury...in places in England...on the hills of the city of Bristol, rising among the crops, likewise].

GENTIANELLA Moench

  • Gentianella amarella (L.) Börner (Autumn Gentian) - Grassland Very Rare A rare and much declined plant of commons, dry open species-rich grassland, old quarries, rocky banks and slopes, and along woodland rides and clearings. Only recently observed at Dolbury Warren, Brown's Folly.

[List other sites.]

  • ssp. amarella Grassland Very Rare The nominate plant to which most records refer.

  • ssp. anglica (Pugsley) T.C.G. Rich & McVeigh (Gentianella anglica (Pugsley) E.F. Warb.) (Early Gentian) 1955 Grassland Extinct Was discovered for the first time in our region below Brown's Folly, Bathford in 1944 by Mr. Lubbock and identified by D. Coombe (C.I. Sandwith in Bristol Botany in 1944, p. 16); and discovered at a second station at Battlefields, Lansdown in 1955 by F.M. Barton and determined by N.M. Pritchard (Bristol Botany in 1956, p. 183). It hasn't been sighted since.

[1955 record says by S.J. Parker but he entered the record.]

List:

  • Centaurium erythraea Rafn (var. erythraea - Stace, NBN) (Common Centaury) / Grassland
  • Centaurium erythraea x C. pulchellum (= C. x ubsdellii T.C.G. Rich - Stace) (NBN) (Common x Lesser Centaury) Grassland
  • Centaurium littorale (Turner ex Sm.) Gilmour (ssp. littorale - Kew, GBIF) (Seaside Centaury) - seems highly unlikely - check! Grassland
  • Centaurium pulchellum (Sw.) Druce (Lesser Centaury) - Grassland
  • Blackstonia perfoliata (L.) Huds. (Yellow-wort) / Grassland
  • Gentianella amarella (L.) Börner ssp. amarella (Autumn Gentian) - Grassland
  • Gentianella amarella (L.) Börner ssp. anglica (Pugsley) T.C.G. Rich & McVeigh (Stace) Gentianella anglica (Pugsley) E.F. Warb. (NBN) (Early Gentian) 1955 Grassland

Species to add:

  • Centaurium erythraea Rafn var. capitatum (Willd. ex Cham.) Melderis (Common Centaury) - Brist. Fl.
  • Centaurium littorale (Turner ex Sm.) Gilmour (ssp. littorale - Kew, GBIF) (Seaside Centaury) - seems highly unlikely - check! /