Small Fleabane (Pulicaria vulgaris)
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: | Pulicaria vulgaris |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Gaertn. |
| 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: | CR in GB & EN in England. Species now confined to New Forest |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Targeted actions needed to ensure all sites receive suitable management |
| 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: | The species only survives in England because of the surviving working /commoning landscape that persists in the New Forest & Hampshire Avon. Maintenance of this traditional management is essential. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | A species of commonland & village greens that requires a long continuity of heavy traditional grazing & associated heavy winter poaching. 'Gentrification' of village greens etc during the twentieth century led to loss from all sites outside the New Forest & adjacent Avon Valley. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Support traditional pastoralism, permitting / encouraging high concentrations of extensive grazing (including heavy levels of winter poaching) & encouraging natural dynamism across extensive areas within New Forest & lower Avon Valley (Hampshire)
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Landscape/catchment/marine management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites: Avon Valley (Bickton to Christchurch) SSSI. The New Forest SSSI.
Comments: P. vulgaris perhaps most threatened in Hampshire basin through decline in commoning pastoralism, regulation of flooding (in Avon Valley) etc leading to loss of natural dynamism & regulation of grazing levels etc.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Target management of sites with 'lost' populations of P. vulgaris (at sites lost since 1950) by supporting restoration of heathland grazing with associated road verge / drove road / village green elements (often fenced out of restored grazing units). Consider reintroduction as last resort, if species fails to reappear.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Monitor all populations on 1-3 year cycle to assess trends in population & to review site condition for species (e.g. vegetation structure, hydrology, associated species)
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: Unknown
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites: Avon Valley (Bickton to Christchurch) SSSI. The New Forest SSSI.
Comments: Populations fluctuate hugely from year to year, so important to undertake monitoring over protracted period (to identify trends in population fluctuation) & continuing suitability of site for species.
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.