Leafless Hawk's-beard (Crepis praemorsa)
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: | Crepis praemorsa |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (L.) F.Walther |
| 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 VU in England due to its restriction to a single locality with a population size c.1750 counted in 2009 (Stroh et al., 2014). The recent discovery of a second colony increases this total but it does not change its overall threat status as it remains vulnerable to regional extinction due over- and undergrazing and bank erosion. It should also be noted that it has extremely low levels of flowering and therefore seedset under the current grazing regime. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | The lack of flowering and therefore seed-set due to heavy grazing pressure is likely to limit recruitment and maybe a major barrier to its recovery/future survival. |
| 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: | No |
| Justification: | This species has a highly restricted distribution and is unlikely to colonise new sites. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - sufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Consider reducing grazing pressure on Orton Pastures SSSI to improve flowering performance of Crepis praemorsa. This could include a trial exclosure to remove grazing pressure during May-Aug when the plant usually flowers.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Orton Pastures SSSI
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.