''Hieracium naviense'' is a very rare species of

hawkweed ''Hieracium'' (), known by the common name hawkweed and classically as (from ancient Greek ιεράξ, 'hawk'), is a genus of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, and closely related to dandelion (''Taraxacum''), chicory ('' Cichorium'') ...

which has been given the common name of Derby hawkweed. It is a native perennial plant of limestone cliffs, first discovered in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, England, at the

Winnats Pass Winnats Pass (or Winnats, as shown on some Ordnance Survey maps) is a hill pass and limestone gorge in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. The name is a corruption of 'wind gates' due to the swirling winds through the pass. It lies west of t ...

(SK1382) by J.N. Mills in 1966, and described by him as a new species in 1968. According to the '' Flora of Derbyshire'', it has been refound there on a number of occasions since, most recently in 2013, including in 1981 by UK hawkweed expert P.D. Sell, who declared it "a good species". Like many

apomictic In botany, apomixis is asexual reproduction without fertilization. Its etymology is Greek for "away from" + "mixing". This definition notably does not mention meiosis. Thus "normal asexual reproduction" of plants, such as propagation from cuttin ...

species of ''Hieracium'', it has an extremely localised distribution and requires specialist knowledge to recognise it. Apart from the two limestone cliffs found within a single 1 km square in the Derbyshire

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

, it has never been recorded anywhere else in Britain, or indeed the world. The only other vascular plant endemic to Derbyshire (i.e. found nowhere else) is the bramble ''

Rubus durescens ''Rubus durescens'' is a rare British species of flowering plant in the rose family. It is native to England, where the entire global distribution of this bramble is found only within the southern half of the county of Derbyshire. It occurs in ...

''.

Conservation status

This endemic plant species was previously regarded as being Nationally Rare (NR) and Vulnerable (VR) in the national UK conservation list but its status was upgraded to the IUCN-defined conservation category of Critically Endangered (CR) in England's Vascular Plant Red List, first published in 2014.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22286630 naviense