Asperula cynanchica Squinancywort

A low-growing, more or less prostrate, rhizomatous bedstraw-like plant that produces small pinkish-white flowers. It is a strict calcicole and is only found growing on sunny banks on calcareous soils, or in calcareous dunes. It is outcompeted by other species in rank grassland and only does well in short grassland where it benefits from grazing by rabbits and sheep. Good seed dispersal, which is probably facilitated by ants, is essential for sustaining long-lived populations. It has a markedly southern distribution in Britain, more or less confined to soils on chalk or limestone. It has been lost from many sites as a result of ploughing and agricultural improvenments and has undergone a significant decline within its British range since the 1950s. In West Glamorgan it is largely confined to Gower where it grows on the shallow, calcareous soils of the south-facing limestone cliffs.

Native