Reintroduction of Artemisia campestris on the Brecks

One of the UK’s rarest plants, Artemisia campestris L. (Field Wormwood), has been given a lifeline to try and boost the numbers of this endangered plant. This rare species is found nowhere in Britain apart from the Brecks where it has just been introduced to a new site. Artemisia campestris has fewer than 1,000 individual plants recorded in Great Britain and grows at only three native locations. Numbers have plunged due to development, forestry and intensive farming, leaving the species teetering on the brink. It is also known that restoring populations of Artemisia campestris can directly contribute to increasing the number of individuals of the rare beetle Wormwood Moonshiner (Amara fusca) which is normally seen at night foraging in A. campestris.