Checklist developed by the National Botanic Gardens and published on its website.
Vascular plants
In 2010, as part of the initiative to review the State of Knowledge on Ireland’s Biological Diversity the National Biodiversity Data Centre produced an inventory of sources of biodiversity data. The inventory was developed by inviting recognised national experts to identify the state of knowledge.
Ophrys apifera – Oisín Duffy
Irish checklist
Parnassia palustris – Oisín Duffy
Number of vascular plant species
2,328
- Natives: 980
- Natives (apomictic species): 273
- Alien (archeophyte): 111
- Alien (neophyte): 964
Centaurea nigra – Oisín Duffy
Primary sources of distribution data
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland: hectad and tetrad* databases
- Heritage Council of Ireland: Hedgerow Surveys of Ireland*
- Dr. David Thomas Holyoak: Irish vascular plant data 1999-2009*
- Paul R. Green: Irish vascular plant data 2011*
- Online Atlas of Vascular Plants 2012 Onwards* (National Biodiversity Data Centre)
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland: The Flora of County Clare*
- Paul R. Green: The Flora of County Waterford*
- Paul R. Green: The Flora of County Wexford*
- National Botanic Gardens: herbarium & research databases
- National Biodiversity Data Centre: Species extracted from the National Vegetation Database*
- National Biodiversity Data Centre: Irish Crop Wild Relative Database*
- National Biodiversity Data Centre: Discrete vascular plant surveys*
- National Parks and Wildlife Service: rare and threatened plant database
- Environmental Protection Agency: Q value database & funded research
- Tree Council of Ireland: Heritage Trees of Ireland*
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland: Flora of County Clare*
- Irish Vascular Plant Data* – (Robert Northridge)
- Flora of County Cavan* (National Botanic Gardens)
- Species Data from the National Vegetation Database* (National Biodiversity Data Centre)
Data is currently being centrally collated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. *Databases currently accessible through Biodiversity Maps.
Pyrola rotundifolia ssp. maritima – Oisín Duffy
National conservation assessment
- Article 17 reporting – 3 species listed in EU Habitats Directive: National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2019. The status of EU Protected Habitats and Species in Ireland. NPWS, Department of the Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.
- Wyse Jackson, M., FitzPatrick, Ú., Cole, E., Jebb, M., McFerran, D., Sheehy Skeffington, M. & Wright, M. (2016) Ireland Red List No. 10: Vascular Plants. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin, Ireland.
Botanists recording in Co. Wexford – Oisín Duffy
Monitoring or repeat surveys in place
- Rare plant surveys (National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1990s, 2000s)
- BSBI Local Change Project: 1987-1988
264 systematically selected tetrads were surveyed in Ireland in 1987-88. This survey has not been repeated since. Rich, T.C.G., Beesley, S. & Goodwillie, R. 2001. Changes in the vascular plant flora of Ireland between pre-1960 and 1987-1988: the BSBI Monitoring Scheme. Irish Naturalists’ Journal 26: 333-350
- Macrophytes are monitored by the EPA through the Water Framework Monitoring Programme
- Intertidal seagrasses are monitored by the EPA through the marine Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programme.