Under a snowy sky, Rosemary Parslow crawls on her hands and knees across the icy ground. The majority of other tourists visiting the Isles of Scilly are ensconced with their loved ones. This enthusiast for natural history, however, is focused on finding a small, endangered fern that ‘blooms’ in the middle of winter. To the confusion of her three kids, Rosemary’s adopted this as a sort of seasonal ritual. Regarding her excursions to locate the plant, “they all thought I was totally barking,” she explains. “Obviously, it gave a certain flavour to Christmas.”
Rosemary devotes her time to visiting the islands frequently in order to chart the delicate and uncommon flora that is virtually unique to Britain. She is witnessing the effects of climate change firsthand and almost drowned while looking for one of the plants. She claims she is committed to passing on her knowledge to the next generation of conservationists after decades of exploration of the archipelago. Situated on Cornwall’s coast, the Isles of Scilly consist of over a hundred islands, the majority of which are deserted.
They have a distinctive natural history, home to uncommon sea creatures, globally significant seabirds, and rare and exquisite wild flowers. In order to ring seabirds, Rosemary first traveled to the islands in 1958. “I fell in love with the islands and I’ve never looked back,” she claims. Eventually, she struck gold when she noticed that a tiny area of heath land had dozens of the rare ferns, known as the least adder’s tongue fern. The little-known Ophioglossum lusitanicum plant has leaves the size of a human fingernail and reaches a maximum height of only 2 cm. Its central spike, which resembles a snake’s tongue and develops in the winter, gives it its name.
Incredibly helpful post, like a GPS for my lost thoughts.