Tutshill Hawkweed (Hieracium vagicola)
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: | Hieracium vagicola |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | P.D.Sell |
| 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 ensure this Critically Endangered English endemic survives. It is now only known at unprotected Woodcroft Quarry (gone from two other sites) where very vulnerable to climbers and lack of management etc (Sawtschuk & Rich 2008). |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | At the sole extant location vulnerable to rock climbers (some coordination with climbers has been carried out but not monitored), potential quarrying and spread of invasive plants (Sawtschuk & Rich 2008). |
| 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 would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | few specialist hawkweed surveyors, this a distinct species and survey data available Sawtschuk and Rich (2008). |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Resurvey to assess survival and coordinate with climbing community
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Woodcroft Quarry
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Consider the potential for extending the neighbouring SSSI to capture the quarry site in which this species resides; this would be beneficial to secure its future protection (areas both sides are Lower Wye Gorge SSSI).
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Site protection
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Woodcroft Quarry
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Removal of invasive alien plants (especially Cotoneaster) in Quarry
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites: Woodcroft Quarry
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.