Volunteers help save one of London's rarest plants — SkimNews
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- Citizen Zoo and Habitats & Heritage led the tower mustard project, with their "Mighty Mustard" volunteers attending a March workshop, sowing seeds, and planting out more than 1,000 specimens in the project's first year.
- Tower mustard (Turritis glabra) is listed as near threatened on the Great Britain Red List and endangered in England, surviving at roughly 30 sites nationally due to habitat destruction and changing land management.
- Seed stock was sourced from London's last remaining tower mustard populations at Lesnes Abbey Woods in Bexley and Stain Hill Reservoir in Richmond-upon-Thames, with plantings now established at Wimbledon Common, Hounslow Heath, Lesnes Abbey Woods, and Barnes Common.
- Elliot Newton, director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, said London has lost 185 plant species in recent history, and the project builds on the group's prior Hop of Hope marsh grasshopper release in Norfolk wetlands.
- The project is funded by the Greater London Authority's Green Roots Fund and Thames Water, with botanist Dr Mark Spencer providing expert support and a final planting day scheduled at Hampton Court Palace's Home Park.
Why it matters: With London having lost 185 plant species in recent history and tower mustard endangered in England across just ~30 surviving sites, this volunteer blueprint offers a replicable model for rescuing native wildflowers that support pollinators — and the lead organizers explicitly hope to extend it to species like copse bindweed next.
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