Teesdale Sandwort (Minuartia stricta)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(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: | Sabulina stricta |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Sw.) Rchb. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | Sabulina strica |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | EN in England and restricted to a single site where its numbers (in 6 subpopulations) have declined from c.350 in the 1980s to half that in recent years |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species has highly exacting habitat requirements which are only met within flushes at a single site in Upper Teesdale |
| 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): | 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | This is a relict species for which there is little conservation action that can be undertaken to increase the population. Restricted access to members of the public is likely to be the main means of protection due to the extremely fragile nature of its habitat |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Review what is known about the plant to identify why it has declined
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: Not applicable
High priority sites: Durham
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Undertake periodic targeted surveys of known areas to understand how its numbers are changing
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Durham
Comments: Last full survey undertaken in 2018
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.