Somerset Hair-grass (Koeleria vallesiana)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Grass |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Koeleria vallesiana |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Honck.) Gaudin |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Assessed as NT in England (Stroh et al., 2014), but may be raised to EN in new listings |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Highly localised & population sizes poorly known. Recently lost from at least two sites |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Increased grazing & scrub clearance (including gorse burning) across many of its west Mendip sites likely to benefit range of rare species, whilst additionally mitigating impacts of increasing nitrogen pollution. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Often thought abundant in key sites, but many now number fewer than 100 plants, one with just plants. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Undertaken comprehensive survey of all Somerset (i.e. UK) sites, documenting population size & condition of microhabitat.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: West Mendips (Somerset). Middle Hope SSSI.
Comments: Historically known from 16 topographically distinct sites, across <20 km of west Mendips plus outliers
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Undertake management of key sites where scrub clearance, grazing etc needed
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 6-10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: West Mendip sites & Middle Hope SSSI
Comments: Action likely to be achieved through targeted management action and these are likely to benefit range of other threatened species (e.g. Carex humilis, Trinia glauca)
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.