Slender Bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus angustissimus)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(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: | Lotus angustissimus |
| 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: | Assessed as NT in England (Stroh et al., 2014), & confined to fewer than 30 sites |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Monitoring & ecological research will better inform our understanding of ecology, management & demographics |
| 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: | Appropriate management of maritime cliff slope grasslands (gorse management, scrub control, variable grazing rates etc.) should allow species to flourish & spread. Additionally, policy work to address impacts of nitrogen pollution on grassland sites likely to benefit this species & other ephemerals of short, open grassland. |
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: | Apparently declining in some of its former range on maritime cliff slopes, but gaining some colonies associated with gravel & sand quarries further east. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Undertake full survey of (recently) extant sites, assessing population size & condition of sites, drawing up management recommendations where needed. Particular attention should be paid to isolated populations in Hampshire Basin, Thames valley & Kent etc.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Introduce / reinstate management at threatened populations to maintain favoured short, open grassland communities. Seed should be collected for the Millenium Seed Bank from sites outside main centre of distribution.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Management works should be targeted to sites where other annual / therophyte species are likely to benefit, and at sites for L. angustissimus outside main range (e.g. Thames Basin, Dorset etc).
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Undertake experimental research to identify best tool for managing coarse cliff slope grasslands & scrub
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites: South Devon
Comments: Need to maintain gorse (Ulex) communities & associated grassland on maritime cliff slopes.
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.