Rob Parker’s “Biodiversity” article, White Admiral 53, concentrated on Shepherd’s Needle (Scandrix pecten-veneris) and its decline nationally. On looking through “Simpson’s Flora of Suffolk” I was somewhat surprised to see how many other umbelliferous plants were recorded as being “extinct in some of its former habitats”, “rare”, “decreasing” – or in some similar category.
Rob’s article also rang a bell for me while reading Arthur Young’s “General View of the Agriculture of the County of Norfolk”, first published in 1804. Young lived at Bradfield Combust in Suffolk and was the recognised authority on the agriculture of his time.
I saw reference to another umbelliferous plant, Greater Water Parsnip, Sium latifolium L, which is now rare in Suffolk. It is still found in Lothingland and in small quantities elsewhere. Young recorded it as S. nodiflorum, taken with other “weeds of the river” to plough in as “muck” before growing turnips. Another umbelliferous water plant he specifically mentioned here as being used as fertiliser was Fine-leaved Water Dropwort, Oenanthe aquatica (L.) Poir, syn. O. phellandrium Lam., named as Phelandrium aquaticum by Young. These plants must have been very common at the beginning of the 19th century to be mentioned specifically in this context.
Young named very few weeds in his book. However, he mentions using “moory mud” from the bottom of rivers which, mixed with lime and marle, was spread upon sandy uplands. It produced a profusion of weeds, especially “persicaria”. This was obviously Polygonum persicaria L., usually known as Redshank in Suffolk. I remember the tough red stalks of this weed clogging up the tines of farm machinery.
I do not recall reading of freshwater fish being used as fertiliser in East Anglia. However, Young mentions a fish which must certainly have decreased in number. Apparently Sticklebacks were caught in immense quantities in the Lynn rivers about once in seven years. They were bought for as much as 8d a bushel and mixed with mould (compost) for fertiliser before growing turnips. “They always answered exceedingly.” I wondered whether Young might have been writing about different fish from the Three-spined and Ten-spined Sticklebacks I know, but then I found an interesting comment in Peter Maitland’s “Hamlyn Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Britain and Europe”. The Three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, was formerly used in parts of Europe for the production of fishmeal. It is now of little commercial or sporting significance. (I kept them in an aquarium as a child.)
One final item in Young’s book caught my eye, but it is not likely to be of importance to many readers. Colonel Buller found that old sows, if allowed to get at them, will bark larch trees for the sake of rubbing themselves in the turpentine. “He had some killed in this manner.” You have been warned!
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