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The
Wild Plants of Bere,
Dursey, Whiddy
and other Islands
of Bantry Bay
John
Akeroyd (Editor), Leander Wolstenholme, Jenna Poole
Wendy Atkinson, Paul Flynn, Marketa Janouchova
Caroline Plant, Jenny Fisher
Sample
pages
The
Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other Islands in Bantry
Bay puts on record the variety of wild plants
found in Ireland's most famous natural harbour. This part
of West Cork is famed for its dramatic scenery, mild climate
and sub-tropical gardens, and both land and sea are richly
steeped in history. Plants, people and landscape have shaped
one another, and this book examines the history, geography,
geology, vegetation and land use of this beautiful corner
of Ireland, as well as presenting an annotated catalogue or
Flora of its wild plants.
This Flora
of the islands of Bantry Bay complements an earlier study
of the islands of nearby Roaringwater Bay, published in 1996
and (Supplement) 2011. The islands of Bantry Bay proved to
be as floristically interesting as those of Roaringwater,
with a total of 578 wild plants recorded and doubtless many
more to be discovered. In the past, botanists largely neglected
the islands, especially the two largest, Bere and Whiddy,
and most of the records reported in this present book were
compiled between 1997 and 2008 by botanists based at Sherkin
Island Marine Station. However, plant records from Bantry
Bay go back over four centuries. Philip O'Sullivan Beare (1590-1636),
who lived on Dursey as a boy and later wrote The Natural
History of Ireland, noted medicinal plants, as well as
crops and woodland trees, from Bantry Bay and the islands.
Ireland's first woman botanist, Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815)
from Ballylickey at the head of Bantry Bay, compiled an annotated
list of 360 flowering plants found in and around the Beara
Peninsula, and was the first botanist to record the plants
of Whiddy Island.
JOHN
AKEROYD has a wide knowledge of the Irish flora, and especially
that of the islands of West Cork, which he has visited for
over 25 years. He edited the first Flora published by Sherkin
Island Marine Station, The Wild Plants of Sherkin, Cape
Clear and Adjacent Islands of West Cork, and has been
advisor to the botanists at the Marine Station for many years.
John has a degree in Botany from the University of St. Andrews
and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Having completed
post-doctoral fellowships at Trinity College, Dublin, and
the University of Reading, he became a botanical consultant,
conservationist and writer, and co-founded and edited the
international plant conservation magazine Plant Talk. He first
learned of the flora of West Cork from the famous botanist
Oleg Polunin, who had stayed on Sherkin in the early 1950s
and who taught him at school. Since 2000 John has worked with
a project in Romania that links farming, biodiversity and
conservation. He lives and works in Wiltshire.
ISBN:
978-1-870492-48-5 · Softback · 170 x 245 mm
· 240 pp
140 colour photographs
Published
by Sherkin Island Marine Station
Price:
€10.00 (reduced from €19.99)
plus
postage: Ireland - €6.00
(Please
email for postage rate outside Ireland)
© Sherkin Island Marine
Station 2022
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