© Flora locale (UK) 6 December 1999
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Nursery grown and propagated material still forms the bulk of planting material used in woodland establishment, wildlife habitat creation, ecological restoration and landscaping schemes, and is likely to do so in the future.

Anyone wanting to purchase native plants should use suppliers who are able to provide information concerning the native origin or native provenance of the plants they sell.

If you are a plant specifier, you should ask for this information (in writing) from prospective suppliers. Specialist growers and suppliers usually provide this information as a matter of course, such as in their catalogue. An increasing number of suppliers will now be receiving Certificates of Local Provenance from the Forestry Commission and this is a level of assurance that should be sought for trees and shrubs covered by the FC scheme.

1.1.1 The importance of seed collection methodology

Methods of collecting seed and vegetative material from wild sites is very important to ensure that the material collected reflects a representative range of the wild population from the collection site or a given area. Plants growing on a single site may be quite genetically diverse. This enhances rates of survival and enables continuing adaptation to changing environmental conditions, including immunity against pests and disease and climatic extremes. For further information on collection techniques see Flora locale's Code of practice for collecting, propagating, marketing and selling native plants.

1.1.2 Vegetative propagation

Some species can be successfully propagated vegetatively, as are many cultivars – this maintains their homogeneity (i.e. traits that have been specially selected are maintained). Material propagated vegetatively in horticulture is genetically uniform and if a large amount of uniform material (same species, same clone) is planted in a single site, there is an increased risk of damage to the population by pests and disease. English Elms were devastated by Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970s because the majority of elms were clones originating from a single tree. However, vegetative techniques may be the most appropriate means of bulking up some species, or even growing those for which seed is scarce (e.g. hazel).

1.1.3 Quality standards: The National Plant Specification and nursery accreditation

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) has developed a National Plant Specification which is a quality standard that aims to help purchasers clearly specify their plant requirements, particularly in relation to the size of the plant and, for a tree, its age. At present, the Specification does not adequately address the issue of marketing and selling native plants, but Flora Locale intends to work with the HTA to encourage the incorporation of appropriate guidance within the Specification.

Nurseries are invited to register for accreditation with the HTA, which will then give them official recognition for adopting the Specification. However, registration is expensive and only large nurseries serving the horticulture and amenity market are likely to register.

However, there is a recognised need for suppliers of native plants to be accredited in some way. Flora locale has investigated the possibility of establishing a nursery accreditation scheme but has concluded that there are too many difficulties, at least in the short term. As an interim solution, a Code of Practice has been developed and nurseries will be encouraged to adopt this. The adoption of this Code will be voluntary, with the aim of promoting good practice among the nursery trade. In turn the nursery trade, in association with pressure from the specifiers, will need to police itself. An important aspect of the Code is for plant suppliers to identify the plant sources within their marketing literature and in documents that accompany the plants when they are supplied. A similar Code of Practice will be developed for plant specifiers and users, as it is recognised that many of the current supply problems relate to poor supplier specifications. Professionals in the landscape, forestry and environment trade will be encouraged to follow the Code. See Flora Locale's Code of practice for collecting, propagating, marketing and selling native plants.

1.1.5 Marketing tree seed: the Forest Reproductive Material Directive and Forestry Commission voluntary source identification scheme

All Member States of the European Union will have to adopt a system of nursery inspections to enforce the revised European Directive on Forest Reproductive Material. As this only applies to reproductive material of timber species marketed for forestry purposes, these inspection schemes will only affect a proportion of the trade in wild trees (and will not cover shrubs). See Using Local Stock for Planting Native Trees and Shrubs (Forestry Commission Practice Note, August 1999). Also see the Flora locale library document “Forest Reproductive Material (FRM)" for further details.

1.1.6 Availability of native origin and local provenance material

If locally-sourced native plants are required for a scheme, it may not be available from nursery-grown sources, and it is unrealistic to expect specialist growers to be able to supply local material for every location in Britain. Too many demands for very localised material and failure to accept the "next best thing" that growers can supply, will drive reputable growers out of business and make even less native planting material available from the nursery trade. Plant users will need to be pragmatic, taking into account the individual circumstances of their project. In some cases this may mean taking longer to undertake a scheme. In other cases, material from another locality will need to be used and may be acceptable. For sensitive sites, proposals to plant or sow seed may have to be abandoned or put on hold if the appropriate planting material is not available.

1.1.7 Know your supplier

For all large-scale schemes, where quantities of planting material are required in bulk, it is advisable to develop a close relationship with the specialist grower or supplier in order to jointly plan and guarantee an agreeable outcome. 

Native wildflower and grass seed is available in varying quantities, from a few grams (for the species which have the tiniest seeds, such as harebell) upwards. It is available by mail order from specialist growers and seed houses (who buy from growers). Plants of any kind can also be contract-collected (e.g. as seed or cuttings), grown and propagated to order by specialist growers.

A limited amount of planting material is also available via garden centres and other nurseries that mostly serve the garden and landscape trade. Some of this material might be of native origin or native provenance, but this information is rarely available at the point of sale.

Nurseries that are true specialists in native wildflower and grass seed either undertake or commission seed collections from the wild. A proportion of this seed is then sown to establish "stock" plants, from which seed is subsequently bulked up and sown again to produce single-species crops that may be up to six generations removed from the original wild seed. Reputable suppliers usually replenish their stock plants from the original wild-collected seed on a regular basis to ensure that self-selection (adaptation to the nursery site) does not occur.

The fact that self selection can occur over succeeding generations, indicates that this will also happen in the wild (i.e. if non-local material is used on a site, some adaptation to local conditions is likely to occur over time). The extent to which this occurs for the range of native grasses and wildflowers used in landscaping projects has not been comprehensively studied or documented, although a limited amount of short-term research on a few common meadow wildflowers has shown that non-local varieties can outperform local ones. This may mean that local genetic variety for some species could be eroded by using non-local sources. However, it is also possible that local populations are better adapted to extreme conditions, and likely to be better at surviving in the long term. Research that will improve our knowledge and understanding of gene flow and genetic adaptation in wild plants, is badly needed to provide a scientific foundation for future advice on sourcing strategies.

The largest specialist growers farm wildflowers as single-species crops in wide strips that may be 30 metres or more long, and the seed is collected by specially adapted seed harvesters or a conventional combine harvester. Smaller growers will collect seed by hand.

Contamination of the crop from other wildflowers grown on site is unavoidable, but most of the unwanted seed is usually cleaned out after harvesting, using sieves. Specialist growers can supply varied quantities of different species, and can also create mixtures of species tailored to specific needs (e.g. for creating wildflower grassland on neutral soil). Because the wildflower and grass crops are usually grown as single-species stands, the supplier can create mixtures with appropriate proportions of seed of the different species, which will help to produced a balanced effect after sowing. The experienced growers of native wildflowers will be able to provide information on the approximate number of seeds supplied for both mixtures and weights of single species. When establishing grassland, quantification of seed number is far more useful than seed weight.

The integrity of native-origin seed from cultivated seed sources may be compromised by cross-pollination with non-native varieties, cultivars and related species. The specific native-origin of a stock plant may also be lost in succeeding generations, if cross-pollination occurs with material sourced from other places that is growing close by. Suppliers have an obligation to notify buyers where either is a possibility. The place of native origin becomes the plant nursery, where the planting material has exceeded the sixth generation from the original wild seed.

It remains very difficult to obtain grass seed of British native-origin although some suppliers are now endeavouring to establish native grass crops. In the meantime, the majority of supplies originate from North America and/or Australasia. A few companies will contract-collect grass seed from native meadows, although the amount of seed that can be collected and supplied in this way will always be rather limited. As the majority of common native grasses have been widely planted already in the countryside, for re-seeding livestock pastures and meadows, it is currently not pragmatic or realistic to insist upon native grass seed for large scale schemes (e.g. arable reversion) that require seed within a short time period. However, the agricultural variety that is selected should be appropriate to the type of scheme. Usually it is the finer-leaved grasses that are chosen, such as Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus) Sweet Vernal-grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), Small Timothy (Phleum bertolonii), Red Fescue (Festuca rubra) and Common Bent (Agrostis curtisii). Specialist suppliers of native wildflowers will be able to provide advice on the most appropriate varieties of these species to select. 

1.3 Plug plants

A small number of growers specialise in propagating wildflowers and ferns and selling these as as plug plants. These nurseries either source their seed from specialist grower, or have their own stock plants from which they collect and propagate seed as plugs. Some of the larger business can supply large quantities of plant plugs, from seedlings to mature plants, for schemes such as vegetating highway verges. Plug plants are also provided to larger retail outfits, such as garden centres, and some companies also sell by mail order. Wildflower plug plants in the UK are mostly grown from seed, but some species are vegetatively propagated, especially aquatics (see below) and bulbs (e.g. Wild Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta).

1.3.1 Ferns

Some "off-the-shelf" planting material is available as plug plants from specialist growers. Ferns are easy to propagate from spores but quite hard to obtain as mature plants of known place of native-origin and in bulk for large-scale habitat schemes. To obtain material of known native-origin, it is advisable to collect leaves or leaflets (called "pinnae" or "pinnules") with ripe spores from suitable wild sites and supply this directly to specialist growers for them to propagate. Leaf collection should be from a variety of different plants, to ensure heterogeneity in the resulting plants. Specialist suppliers of ferns will not necessarily have kept records on the native-origin of the planting material, especially where the bulk of their trade is in exotic species. Fern collectors and specialist fern suppliers also often specialise in "oddities" variants from the normal! Fronds of rare species should not be collected unless for specific reintroduction projects on named sites.

1.3.2 Aquatic plants

Aquatic plants are often vegetatively propagated in cultivation so are likely be identical to the parent plant that was either grown from seed or removed as a rhizome from the wild. All plants supplied of a single species and from the same supplier, have a good chance of being genetically identical. While this might be acceptable for small habitat schemes, for a larger scheme contract-collection and propagation of vegetative material or seeds collected from specified sites might be more appropriate. Specialist growers with expertise in ecological restoration projects will undertake collection and propagation to contract. At least one supplier is undertaking research into genetics of some aquatic species to identify whether genetic variation exists in relation to place of native-origin, such as different river catchments. Some of the suppliers who specialise in native aquatics are aware of the sourcing issue, and can provide plants from a range of locations throughout the UK.

There are a large number of exotic species, varieties and hybrids of aquatic plants currently on sale. Although these attractive, they are really for use in gardens and should not be established in the wider countryside. Examples of species commonly sold as cultivars include Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), Purple Loosetrife (Lythrum salicaria) and Yellow Loosetrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), but there are many other water plants such as water lilies (Liliacae sp.) and pondweeds, which are of exotic origin.

As nursery-grown aquatic and semi-aquatic plants are frequently grown in association with exotic species, contract and carefully controlled collection/propagation of material from wild sites is less likely to result in the colonisation of a habitat scheme by unwanted invasive plants. However, the practice of individual suppliers varies considerably, so a visit to the nursery is recommended. 

1.4 Trees and shrubs

The majority of native trees and shrubs currently on sale have been grown in nurseries from seed collected from wild sites all over Europe and certified "selected" stands. Selected stands include both wild sites and seed "orchards" of timber tree species, currently Beech, Peduncuate Oak, Sessile Oak, some Poplars and Scots Pine. These are species currently "controlled" by the European Directive on Forestry Reproductive Material. When the revised directive is adopted, this list will include the following species that are native to the UK: Common Alder, Silver Birch, Downy Birch, European Beech, Ash, Scots Pine, native Black Poplar, Aspen, Wild Cherry, English Oak, Sessile Oak and Small-leaved Lime. "Selected" stands are chosen for forestry, not nature conservation or amenity purposes. One Kent grower has been forced to supply French oak trees from certified French stands because the Kent oak trees grew "too small" (this may indicate an adaptation to the local climate). Trees in selected stands are meant to exhibit superior qualities that make them good for timber production, such as straight trunks and lack of epicormic growth. Some selected stands on the Continent are rather uniform, and might represent clones of a single tree or are trees grown from the seed of a single tree. They are no more than tree farms producing tree seed as a commercial crop.

Differentiating the "nativeness" of trees and shrubs currently on sale is only possible when dealing with a grower who is sensitive to the sourcing issue, and who will provide full traceability information about the plants he/she is selling. When the FRM Directive is in place, any trees being sold for "forestry" purposes will require strict labelling. However, trees not for forestry purposes will not have to meet this requirement.

Trees and shrubs are available from nurseries in a variety of sizes from one season's growth to well-grown young trees of five or more years' growth, as "bare-rooted" stock or pot-grown in "root-trainers". The smaller the plant, the cheaper it costs and usually the more likely it is to survive after planting, providing the aftercare that is provided is appropriate and the plant is of good quality to start with. 

 
2. Sourcing from the wild

 

2.1 Plant collecting and the law

There are many instances when sourcing from the wild is a perfectly valid and acceptable approach for collecting "propagules" for projects. However, wild collections must be carefully planned and within the law. Some of the most important legal considerations are noted below.

It is illegal to dig up any plant from the wild without permission from the landowner and, for species protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, without a license from the appropriate authority. The collection of seed from species listed under Schedule 8 of the Act is also subject to licensing, as is the digging up of Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) for sale. There may be additional local laws (e.g. council by-laws) which prohibit the removal of cuttings or seed from all wild plants without permission.

There are also a great number of nationally scarce and rare plants, which should not be collected or planted for purposes other than bona fide conservation schemes that have been approved by the appropriate nature conservation agency. Seed and plant collection should always be undertaken in a way that does not damage the integrity of existing wild plants and plant communities, and the activity of collecting should not result in damage to the land itself or to property. 

There is considerable potential for sustainably exploiting wild plants from places where they grow prolifically, but such exploitation should not normally be for commercial gain otherwise it will create a demand for wild plants that may result in damage to wild sites and their species. The only exceptions, under restricted circumstances, are where a limited amount of material is collected to establish stock plants for nursery propagation or where a wild site has been specially created to provide a continuous stock of wild plants for ecological restoration (e.g. a specially created wetland).

At each site where exploitation is to be permitted, collection should be under the control of a single person who keeps records on the material that is collected and ensures that the plant/seed collection is properly authorised. Initially, a botanist with expertise in native plants should inspect the site and advise on the level of collection which is likely to be sustainable over a given period. Collection should be monitored and stopped when the maximum level of exploitation has been reached.

The horticultural bulb trade

Unfortunately, there are many examples where wild populations of plants have been significantly depleted by collecting for the horticultural trade. The trade in bulbs and species such as Cyclamen from continental Europe has been a particularly sorry story and has led to a campaign against the sale of bulbs "Of Wild Origin" being sold in garden centres and other shops. The environmental organisation Fauna and Flora International has led this campaign, and now has a project based in Turkey where local communities are making limited wild collections of bulbs, which they propagate in bulk in nurseries for selling on to the horticultural trade. Many bulbs, such as wild species of snowdrops, fritillary, grape hyacinth and daffodil, have been unsustainably collected (especially from southern European countries) and supplied directly to the Dutch bulb trade where the plants have been packaged and retailed directly to garden centres in the UK and elsewhere. The good news is that FFI's campaign has been quite effective with the result that the bulb trade has become more responsible in recent years, but it is important that the progress made so far is not undermined.

In line with FFI's campaign, Flora locale is opposed to the exploitation of wild-collected bulbs. All bulbs can be easily propagated from seed. If native bulbs are needed for a local conservation projects, seed collection can be undertaken from wild sites and grown on to produce the quantities of plants required.

The last piece of advice is that if native-origin Bluebells are not available, don't buy the the exotic (i.e. Spanish) alternative and do not accept substitution by the exotic variety. 

2.3 Habitat harvesting

Seed can be collected from meadows and heather stands by 'habitat harvesting' for direct seeding on to a donor site and there are a number of specialist contractors who have machinery developed for this purpose. Costs of this work are usually in terms of the Contractor's time and expertise in harvesting the seed, preparing the ground and establishing it, rather than payment for the seed itself.

The seed harvesting and donor sites should be located within the same natural area or local biogeographic region.

The quality of seed collected in this way can be variable. It is likely to contain a large amount of chaff (leaf and plant stalks) as well as insects, mites and fungi spores. Much of this associated wildlife will continue to thrive at the expense of the seed, once it has been harvested. The seeds present in a sample will reflect the time of harvesting – only seed which is ripe at the time of harvesting will be viable. Seed maturity for target species should always be verified prior to seed collection, otherwise money and labour will be wasted in the harvesting process - there is no point harvesting a meadow for wildflower seed if only a very small proportion of seed is ripe.

Once harvested the seed should be, ideally, transferred to the donor site immediately after collection as it will deteriorate rapidly unless it is professionally cleaned and stored.

Seed can be cleaned prior to spreading on the new site, or may be spread on site directly with associated brashings or hay/chaff. If seed needs to be stored for any period of time it should be thoroughly cleaned and put into cold store in order to maintain its viability.

See Flora locale’s advisory notes on methods for habitat harvesting. Browse the library section “Seed collection and plant propagation” and also search on the keywords Heathland and Grassland.

A number of companies will direct-harvest both wildflower and grass seed from native grassland and heathlands, especially for rather specialist schemes close to nature reserves. Harvesting of heather seed and/or the collection of cut heather by contract and from a specific location is now the preferred method for sourcing heather seed for the re-establishment of heathland on bare ground (rather than the purchase of heather seed from an unknown source). This approach enables seed collection from as local an area as possible, and from plants that are representative of the local soil type, climate and geology. This is rather a specialist job – and we recommend using only contractors which have prior experience and the appropriate knowledge (both in relation to seed harvesting and its establishment on the new site). Alternatively, inexperienced agricultural contractors should be closely supervised by an ecological clerk of works.

Seed collected by habitat harvesting is sometimes bagged up and retailed as mixtures (e.g. 'Cricklade mix' from Cricklade National Nature Reserve, an internationally important wildflower meadow). Sometimes it is not possible to ascertain the relative proportions of different species in these mixtures. If in doubt ask the supplier and check that the species included in the mixture are appropriate for your needs. Sometimes these mixes can be heavy on grass seed, and the species present will be dependent upon the time the seed was harvested (if only one collection was made, only seed that was ripe at the time will be present)

2.4 Hand-collected wildflower/grass seed

Seed can be hand-collected from habitats such as wildflower grassland. Manual seed collection is a good way of targeting seed collection but will only produce small quantities. Collection will need to take place over a variable period, in order to obtain seed from a variety of species. Such seed can also be used to augment species-poor grassland ("patch" technique) or grow stock plants for nursery propagation, but has been successfully used for restoring grassland at the field scale on small areas of former arable land, using a low seeding rate.

2.5 Aquatic and wetland plants

Common and widespread aquatic and other wetland plants can be sustainably harvested from the wild, as many species rapidly propagate vegetatively. An ideal source is where plants have been removed from a wild plant community as a result of maintenance practice conducive to habitat conservation (e.g. pond restoration, ditch management). Ongoing waterways maintenance is potentially a very good source of aquatic plants that are appropriate to a local area the local Environment Agency (or equivalent) office may be able to suggest suitable locations. Some specialist aquatic suppliers can supply material in bulk which is collected from wild sites on this basis. Alternatively, individuals and organisations may consider contacting local environmental organisations or farmers, to see if plants might be available as a result of pond, ditch or river maintenance works. Care must be taken over timing of plant removal in order to minimise disturbance to associated fauna and rare flora.

One example of sustainable aquatic plant collection comes from the Republic of Ireland, where staff of the Wildlife Service have encouraged a local farmer to reduce the level of cattle grazing on a wet grassland adjacent to a river. As a result the land has been rapidly colonised by wetland plants such as Reedmace, Reed Sweet-grass and Greater Pond-sedge, while other wetland flowers also grow prolifically. Each year a proportion of the plants are dug up and sold in the local area for use in new constructed wetland schemes. Because these and many other aquatic plants rapidly propagate by vegetative means, they can be sustainably harvested and at the same time impoverished agriculturally improved damp grassland can be enhanced for wildlife. The third benefit is that the farmer receives income from his plant sales, which is considerably greater than the value of the land for plain cattle grazing! Even land that has been under arable farming, which is close to a river and can be made wetter by blocking drains and promoting winter flooding, can revert quite rapidly (within 5 years) to rushy wet grassland from which plants can be sustainably collected for creative conservation schemes (while farming activities, such as extensive grazing, can continue).

There is considerable potential for other public bodies and voluntary ones, who procure large numbers of plants for creative conservation, to consider this approach to sourcing wetland and aquatic plants. 

Most ferns are extremely easy to propagate from spores. Since thousands of spores are produced from a single fern leaflet, only a small amount of leaf needs to be collected in order to produce a lot of plants. Specialist nurseries will grow ferns to order, and in bulk, using wild-collected fern fronds (only a small section of frond is needed) from specific localities if requested. Ferns should not be dug up from the wild and fronds from rare species should not be collected.

2.7 Trees and shrubs

The backlash against imported varieties of native species is now promoting a more responsible approach towards collecting seed from native woods and hedgerows, for growing into planting material for new hedges, native woods and for restoring woodlands and hedgerows in the countryside.

The UK Forestry Commission also now recognises the importance of using local sources of planting material and in 1999 produced guidance on "The Use of Local Seed Sources for Planting Native Trees and Shrubs". The Commission has issued a map of "Local Seed Collection Zones" or "Regions of Provenance" in the UK, and recommends that planting material for use within those regions should be sourced from within the same region, wherever possible. 

1. Characteristics which indicate that the seed source is likely to be indigenous include: evidence of coppicing, absence of organised planting patterns and wide age-class distribution.

2. Recommended sites for seed collection include ancient semi-natural woodlands, ancient (pre-enclosure) hedgerows and stands of mature scrub (e.g. mature scrub on calcareous grassland, sallow scrub in marshy carrs). Artificial sites constructed after 1960, such as gravel pits and the verges of new roads are likely to have been landscaped using trees and shrubs from indeterminate sources so should be avoided. Replanted areas within ancient semi-natural woodland should also be avoided for similar reasons, except where there is good evidence of natural regeneration of indigenous trees (e.g. birch and aspen, which is hardly ever planted but regenerates copiously in cleared woodland).

3. Where possible, the land owner's or historical estate records should be checked to see if there is any documentation about trees having been previously purchased or planted on the site. Such records may reveal that oak trees were imported, e.g. from France, and planted for forestry or amenity purposes.

4. In collecting seed, homogeneity and uniformity should be avoided. Choose a varied population, i.e. an identifiable group or assembly of individuals of the species in question – preferably between 20 and 30 individuals from which equal amounts of seed should be collected. Try not to collect from a single, isolated tree, unless there is no alternative, and do not select trees for particular characteristics. Trees should be sampled to reflect visible variations in the population.

5. Parent trees from which seed is collected should, if possible, be isolated from the immediate influence of non-native trees of the same species, so that potential for cross-pollination by exotics and cultivars is minimised.

6. In natural stands, it is also important to collect seed from well-separated trees to ensure that seed collection is not confined to a parent and its progeny. A minimum of 50 metres separation between parent trees is recommended.

7. The resulting seed collected should be well mixed before being sown. This ensures that seed of individual parent trees is evenly distributed.

8. Before collecting a lot of seed a sample should be checked to see if it is fertile by cracking open the outer seed case or breaking open the seed capsule. A tree may appear to produce prolific seed, but sometimes all that exists is the outer seed casing and there is no seed inside. Good seed is not always produced every year, and some species only produce good seed crops one year in every six or more. Female trees of some species which propagate vegetatively as well as by seed, may be scarce and do not necessarily produce good seed each year. Aspen is an example of this.

Cuttings

Many species may also be readily propagated using cuttings, and this technique can produce large rooted plants within a single growing season, without having to treat and sow seed, and break seed dormancy. Collection of cuttings should follow a similar approach to collecting tree seed to ensure that a varied range of planting material is grown, rather than clones of one or only a few trees. The use of cuttings is more labour intensive, and nurseries tend to prefer propagation by seed. However, for small planting schemes (e.g. in small farm woods or urban areas) the use of trees and shrubs of local native-origin grown by cuttings, is preferable to using exotic varieties from an unknown source. Hazel (Coryllus avellana) is an example of a native species which has historically been propagated within ancient woodlands by layering, and it was extensively planted in medieval times when coppices were fashionable. Hazel seed of native origin is now a rare commodity, as the majority of hazel nuts are despatched by Grey Squirrels before they are sufficiently ripe to collect. The majority of hazel planted in the UK in recent years has therefore been sourced from the Continent.

Native species found in the UK that propagate readily from cuttings include those in the following families: Prunus (cherries and plums), Malus (Crab Apple), Populus (Poplar)*, Salix (Willow), Cornus (Dogwood) and Coryllus (Hazel). Cuttings can be taken in the spring or autumn. Commercial horticulture has demonstrated that, in fact, very many species can be propagated vegetatively given sufficient care and attention, so the list of species we have given here is not exhaustive.

* Native black poplar (Populus nigra ssp betulifolia) should not be offered for sale, collection from the wild or planted in the countryside except in relation to projects agreed by the Black Poplar Working Group.

Tree and shrub seedlings can be sustainably uprooted from certain wild sites, where the plants are unwanted or "surplus". Examples include heathland invaded by oak and birch, and calcareous grassland invaded by scrub, where invasion by woody species threatens habitats that are of high biodiversity value. Sometimes there can also be copious tree regeneration in native woodlands, such as following a good seed year for oak and where there is unlikely to be much long term survival of the millions of germinating seedlings that are apparent after a good acorn year.

Tree and shrub seedlings should be uprooted in damp weather (from soft, damp soil), put directly into a bucket containing shallow water and then transported directly to the planting site (or a "holding" site) and planted in the ground. Seedlings should not be kept in water for more than a couple of hours, and the roots must not dry out.

This approach can be highly cost-effective at the community level and can also be used as a method of involving volunteers or local community groups in urban and creative conservation projects. It is also an environmentally sustainable approach that makes economic sense for agricultural holdings where some native woodland already exists. Fencing deer out of existing native woodland may be carried out to promote copious natural regeneration, which will provide new planting material for hedgerows and new native woods. The money incurred in fencing may be recovered through grant-aid for woodland regeneration (i.e. from the Forestry Commission) as well as through savings made in not having to purchase trees and shrubs for planting. Natural regeneration will also replenish existing woodlands with locally adapted trees, cutting out the need to replant and reduces the risk of introducing maladapted trees from unknown sources.

Further guidance on establishing new native woodlands and collecting the seed of native trees is available from the Forestry Authority, Edinburgh, and from publications produced by Forest Research.

Flora locale gratefully acknowledges financial support provided by English Nature, the World Wide Fund for Nature and TRANSCO which enabled the production of this document. 

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