Carboniferous Hawkweed (Hieracium pachyphylloides)

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: (none)
UKSI Recommended Name: Hieracium pachyphylloides
UKSI Recommended Authority: (Zahn) Roffey
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: Requires a recovery project to restore former range of this Endangered Wye Valley endemic which has declined from 6 to 1 site (Sawtschuk & Rich 2008). Subsequent conservation work has shown it responds to opening up the canopy (mimicking woodland coppice management; Rich et al. 2018) which needs extending to all sites.
Question 2: Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions?
Response: Yes
Justification: Opening up canopy has been shown to work for increasing populations so needs extending to other historic 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: Wider reintroduction of coppice woodland management in Wye Valley

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: few specialist hawkweed surveyors available but this a distinct species and survey data available: Sawtschuk and Rich (2008).

Key Actions

Key Action 1

Proposed Action: Woodland coppicing along cliffs at former sites

Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified

Action type: Habitat management

Duration: 3-5 years

Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites

High priority sites: Symonds Yat to Coldwell area

Comments:

Key Action 2

Proposed Action: Promote awareness of the group amongst landowners, understanding of conservation requirements amongst conservation professionals and identification skills amongst field botanists e.g. via BSBI training resources and workshops

Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified

Action type: Advice & support

Duration: 3-5 years

Scale of Implementation: ≤ 100 sites

High priority sites:

Comments: generic action

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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.