Volunteers help save one of London’s rarest plants

Volunteers have grown and planted more than 1,000 tower mustard plants across London in the first year of a community-led effort to restore one of the capital’s rarest native wildflowers. The project aims to rebuild populations of a plant that supports pollinators and could offer a model for conserving other threatened species.

Seeds came from London’s only two remaining known populations, at Lesnes Abbey Woods and Stain Hill Reservoir. Plants have been established at Wimbledon Common, Hounslow Heath, Lesnes Abbey Woods and Barnes Common, with a further planting planned at Hampton Court Palace’s Home Park. Tower mustard is near threatened across Great Britain and endangered in England; it was once more widespread, but habitat loss and changes in land management have contributed to its decline.