Pedunculate Sea-purslane (Atriplex pedunculata)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Critically Endangered (Not Relevant) [CR(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | Halimione pedunculata |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Atriplex pedunculata |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | L. |
| 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: | Assumed extinct up till 1987 when it was discovered near to Shoeburyness. This population has been maintained through careful habitat management and augmentation. Attempts to reintroduce it to other sites have all failed. Assessed as CR by Stroh et al (2014) due to its restriction to one site and very small population size. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Site-specific actions are quired to maintain the last remaining British population which is threatened by competition with tall grasses. |
| 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: | Restoration of dynamism and open habitat in suitable zones throughout its historic range and beyond could be incorporated into management methods, with benefit to wider guilds also |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 6. Recovery solutions trialled |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Life history factor/s |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Continue to reduce competition from Elymus athericus through removal of turf and exposing underlying substrate on a larger scale than in the past to ensure an adequate area of habitat is available for colonisation.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat creation
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Shoeburyness
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Plants should be cultivated and used to augment the last remaining population at Shoeburyness and be introduced to historic sites in East Anglia where conditions are appropriate.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: (Re-)introduction
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Shoeburyness and suitable sites nearby
Comments:
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.