Owen Mountford spoke on” Two Hundred Years of Exploring the Flora of Huntingdonshire Fens” to an audience of 19 with 8 more on Zoom.
The talk looked at the various botanists who had explored the Huntingdonshire Fens starting at 1790 when John Ray, Thomas Marsham and William Kirby looked at the fens and in particular Whittlesey Marsh which was being drained. A lot of plants were listed then which are no longer present or are very rare such as the Fen Violet, Yellow Loosestrife and Marsh Pea.
As the drainage got more efficient with better pumps so more plants were lost and the peat as it dried deteriorated and became less useful for farming, and it turned to birch woodland. In the late 19th century Edward Hunnybun from Godmanchester started The Cambridge British Flora with very good illustrations. Then George Druce produced a draft Flora of Huntingdonshire (1926).
Next came The Atlas of British Flora with records by John Gilbert, with the Huntingdonshire check list in 1965 followed by Terry Wells “The Flora of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough” with dot maps which gave more information.
Owen Mountford and John Graham are now working on the Flora of the Fenland which should be published within a couple of years. Owen concluded by saying the Fen flora of Huntingdonshire is the most distinctive landscape of the county.
