| Honewort | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Apiaceae |
| Genus: | Trinia |
| Species: | T. glauca |
| Binomial name | |
| Trinia glauca | |
Trinia glauca (honewort) is a low-growing umbellifer found in rocky areas.
Honewort is a low-growing glabrous plant. Its stems can reach 20 cm, and are surrounded by abundant fibrous remains of petioles at the base. It is much-branched, with the branches spreading at a wide angle. The leaves are glaucous, and are 2- to 3- times pinnate, although upper leaves are less divided. The inflorescence is an umbel, with white flowers, and no sepals. It has an ovoid, laterally compressed fruit. [1]
The genus Trinia is named after the German-born botanist Carl Bernhard von Trinius.
In Britain, honewort is restricted to dry stony limestone sites, typically occurring in short, open, grazed turf on south-facing slopes. [2]
Honewort is found in central and southern Europe, north to southern England, and in southwest Asia. [1]
In Britain, honewort is found as a native species in three areas, all in southwest England: the Avon Gorge near Bristol, coastal limestone in South Devon, and in the western Mendip Hills (including the adjacent coast). Its British range covers around 20 sites in all, and the two largest native populations, comprising around 10,000 plants each, are both in this last area, at Sand Point and Crook Peak. [2] British populations are all of subspecies glauca. [3]
In the Avon Gorge, it was first found by William Turner in 1562, one of the first rare plants to be documented in Britain. [4] [5] The stronghold of the species is in the western Mendip Hills, where it was first found by Dillenius in c. 1726. [6] Here, in addition to the Crook Peak and Sand Point sites, it is found on Purn Hill, [7] on Wavering Down, Cross Plain and Axbridge Hill, [8] at Hellenge Hill and South Hill near Bleadon, [4] and the nearby coastal limestone sites of Worlebury Hill and Uphill Cliff and Walborough. [4] Although many other rare limestone plants occur there, Honewort has not been found on Brean Down. [6] In Devon, the species is found at a single site, Berry Head. [9]
It also occurs at Goblin Combe in North Somerset, where it was introduced as an experiment. [4] Six rooted plants were planted and 40 seeds sown in 1955, and in 1989 18,000 plants were counted here. [2] An 1868 specimen from Long Knoll, in Wiltshire, which may be of this species, is present in Taunton Castle Museum. [6]
In Britain, several of the species' sites are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. [2]
Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.
The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Chew Valley and other tributaries of the Avon to the north. The highest point, at 325 metres above sea level, is Beacon Batch which is the summit area atop Black Down. The hills gave their name to the former local government district of Mendip, which administered most of the local area until April 2023. The higher, western part of the hills, covering 198 km2 (76 sq mi) has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which gives it a level of protection comparable to a national park.
The Avon Gorge is a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometre) long gorge on the River Avon in Bristol, England. The gorge runs south to north through a limestone ridge 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Bristol city centre, and about 3 miles (5 km) from the mouth of the river at Avonmouth. The gorge forms the boundary between the unitary authorities of North Somerset and Bristol, with the boundary running along the south bank. As Bristol was an important port, the gorge formed a defensive gateway to the city.
Brean Down is a promontory off the coast of Somerset, England, standing 318 feet (97 m) high and extending 1+1⁄2 miles into the Bristol Channel at the eastern end of Bridgwater Bay between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea.
Burrington Combe is a Carboniferous Limestone gorge near the village of Burrington, on the north side of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in North Somerset, England.
Ebbor Gorge is a limestone gorge in Somerset, England, designated and notified in 1952 as a 63.5-hectare (157-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Mendip Hills. It was donated to the National Trust in 1967 and is now managed by Natural England as a national nature reserve.
Somerset is a rural county in the southwest of England, covering 4,171 square kilometres (1,610 sq mi). It is bounded on the north-west by the Bristol Channel, on the north by Bristol and Gloucestershire, on the north-east by Wiltshire, on the south-east by Dorset, and on the south west and west by Devon. It has broad central plains with several ranges of low hills. The landscape divides into four main geological sections from the Silurian through the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Permian which influence the landscape, together with water-related features.
Leigh Woods is a 2-square-kilometre (0.77 sq mi) area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, within North Somerset opposite the English city of Bristol and north of the Ashton Court estate, of which it formed a part. Stokeleigh Camp, a hillfort thought to have been occupied from the third century BC to the first century AD and possibly also in the Middle Ages, lies within the reserve on the edge of the Nightingale Valley. On the bank of the Avon, within the reserve, are quarries for limestone and celestine which were worked in the 18th and 19th centuries are now derelict.
The North Somerset Levels is a coastal plain, an expanse of low-lying flat ground, which occupies an area between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol in North Somerset, England. The River Banwell, River Kenn, River Yeo and Land Yeo are the three principal rivers draining the area.
Harptree Combe is a 13.63-hectare (33.68-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near East Harptree notified in 1954. "Combe" or "coombe" is a West Country word meaning a steep-sided valley. It is also the site of a 19th-century aqueduct and is overlooked by the site of a castle dating from around 1100.
Dolebury Warren is a 90.6 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and ancient monument near the villages of Churchill and Rowberrow in North Somerset, part of South West England. It is owned by the National Trust, who acquired the freehold in 1983, and managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust.
Crook Peak to Shute Shelve Hill is a 332.2 hectare (820.9 acre) geological and biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the western end of the Mendip Hills, Somerset. The line of hills runs for approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from west to east and includes: Crook Peak, Compton Hill, Wavering Down, Cross Plain and Shute Shelve Hill. Most of the site is owned by the National Trust, which bought 725 acres (293 ha) in 1985, and much of it has been designated as common land. It was notified as an SSSI by Natural England in 1952.
Purn Hill is a 6.1 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Bleadon, Somerset, notified in 1990. The site is a small promontory of Carboniferous Limestone projecting southward from the main Mendip ridge.
Uphill Cliff is a 19.8 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Uphill, North Somerset, although it is in the Avon Area of Search used by English Nature which is based on the 1974-1996 county system.
The Cheddar Complex is a 441.3-hectare (1,090-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cheddar around the Cheddar Gorge and north east to Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England, notified in 1952.
Uphill is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Weston-super-Mare, in the North Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, at the southern edge of the town, on the Bristol Channel coast.
NVC community CG1 is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three short-sward communities associated with heavy grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group, and is regarded as the south-west coastal counterpart of "typical" chalk grassland.
The University of Bristol Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in Bristol, England. The garden moved to its current site in Stoke Bishop in 2005, having previously been at two other sites in the city. The 4,500 species of plants are displayed in collections relating to evolution, Mediterranean, local flora and rare natives and finally useful plants.
The county of Somerset is in South West England, bordered by the Bristol Channel and the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, and Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south, and Devon to the west. The climate, influenced by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the prevailing westerly winds, tends to be mild, damp and windy.
Sand Point in Somerset, England, is the peninsula stretching out from Middle Hope, an 84.1-hectare (208-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It lies to the north of the village of Kewstoke, and the stretch of coastline called Sand Bay north of the town of Weston-super-Mare. On a clear day it commands views over Flat Holm, of the Bristol Channel, South Wales, Clevedon, the Second Severn Crossing and the Severn Bridge. A line drawn between Sand Point and Lavernock Point in South Wales marks the lower limit of the Severn Estuary and the start of the Bristol Channel.