Falklands Conservation

A New Native Plant for the Falkland Islands and New Endemic
By D. Broughton and J.Mc Adam

Research on the edges of South America by Gerald Wheeler of the University of Minnesota (Wheeler, 1998) has resulted in the indentification of a 'new' native species for the Falkland Islands. This plant, Carex Barrosii (suggested common name, Barros Sedge), was identified from a herbarium specimen collected in the Roy Cove area of West Falkland which had been mis identified as Carex acaulis (Small Dusky Sedge). With the addition of this species the native flora of the Falkland Islands now stands at 169 species, with 13 spcies being sedges.

Meanwhile a survey of the literature has revealed that Antarctic Cudweed (Gamochaeta antarctica) is a valid species endemic to the Falkland Islands. The inclusion of this species brings the total number of endemics to 14. Antarctic Cudweed is only known from the plant originally collected by Joseph Hooker near Berkeley Sound in 1847. It was breifly mentioned in David Moore's Flora of the Falkland Islands where it was suggested that this plant appeared to be a glabrous (hairless) form of Falkland Cudweed. Further work by Dr. M. Correa (Correa, 1971) enabled her to confidently support the existence of this species (even with only one specimen to work with). This was because Antarctic Cudweed was so different form other related species. It also turned out not to be closely related to Falkland Cudweed, being in fact closer to American Cudweed. Although there are no confirmed modern sightings of this species (this would require the collection of specimens) it is interesting to note that Ragnhild Brännström recorded it quite frequently on Saunders and Pebble Island during 1993 & 94. However, as this species is so distinctive (it lacks the covering of downy hairs characteristic of all other Falkland Islands Cudweeds) these records are likely to be genuine.

These two species which have taken 11 and 28 years (50 and 152 years if you work from the point of their collection!) respectively to be 'discovered' in the literature illustrate just how much we still have to learn about the Falklands flora.

Sources

Correa, M.N. (1971) Flora Patagonia, Part VII: Compositae. Instituto Nacional de Technologia Agropecuaria, Buenos Aires.

Moore, D.M. (1968) The Vascular flora of the Falkland Islands. British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports No. 60. British Antarctic Survey, London.

Wheeler, G.A. (1988) The Distribution of Carex acaulis Urv., C.barrosii Nelmes, and C. macrosolen Steudel (Cyperaceae) in Austral South America. Taxon 37 (1): 127-131.

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