A Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla subcrenata)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Alchemilla subcrenata |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Buser |
| 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: | EN in England, restricted to around 20 hay meadows and a few pastures between Holwick and Newbiggin in Upper Teesdale. Many of these meadows do not have any formal designation (as they fall just outside Upper Teesdale SSSI) but are managed as hay meadows. A few outlying populations occur elsewhere in Northumberland (Weardale, Allendale) and Lancashire |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | In England the rare Alchemilla species rely on traditional hay meadow management (winter grazing, shutup for hay, July hay cut, no artificial fertilisers) or extensive grazing of pastures outside the summer months. Roadside populations rely on protection and sympathetic management (i.e. no flailing or repeated cuts in the summer months and the arisings removed) |
| 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: | This species could colonise new sites within Teesdale and Weardale where habitat restoration/creation takes place using green hay translocation |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Populations have been surveyed periodically but the current condition of most populations is unknown |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Ensure that appropriate management regimes are introduced/maintained in the key meadows in Teesdale and Weardale
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 6-10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Meadows and pastures between Holwick and Newbiggin in Teesdale
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Undertake periodic targeted surveys of the meadows identified in Action 1 to understand how its numbers are faring in response to management
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:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Assess the potential for designating at least some of its sites (identified as of greatest importance in Action 2) as a SSSI (or extensions of existing SSSIs).
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Site protection
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Currently no population of Alchemilla subcrenata falls within a protected site
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.