Small Water-pepper (Persicaria minor)
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: | Persicaria minor |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Huds.) Opiz |
| 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: | No |
| Justification: | An annual herb of wet places, occurring on wet mud exposed by drawdown in late summer, Persicaria minor was assessed as LC in the England Red List but VU in England due to a decline in distribution of >30%. However, using the most recent distribution data, it's clear that its distribution appears to have stabilised and it is now known from many more 10 km squares than in the 1950s. Consequently, it will not qualify as threatened or near threatened in the revised GB Red List (Stroh et al., in prep), and is unlikely to qualify as threatened or NT in a revision of the England List. As a LC species, there are other species with a higher priority for conservation action. Additionally, there are species that are threatened and are found in the same drawdown habitat, so conservation measures to address the decline of these species should benefit P. minor. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This annual species requires ephemeral drawdown zone habitats for germination and fruiting. Addressing the need for this habitat type for other (threatened) species should lead to an increase in distribution for P. minor. |
| 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: | Potentially, this species could exploit drawdown zones along river corridors, and also in new wetland restoration areas. |
Species Assessment
Not relevant as no Key Actions defined.
Key Actions
No Key Actions Defined
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.