Common butterwort: recovery

Common butterwort is an extremely endangered species, but thanks to nature restoration projects its disappearance from the Netherlands has been averted.

National trends in common butterwort

Around 1935 it was estimated that there were still 500 populations of common butterwort in the Netherlands. In the 1980s the species disappeared from Drenthe, Noord-Brabant and around Winterswijk. Common butterwort grows on loam in wet oligotrophic meadows and wet heathland. As the last ten localities where it was found were at great risk from the effects of water draw-down, eutrophication and acidification, there were fears for its survival in the Netherlands. On the Red List of vascular plants this species has the critical status.

In the early 1990s there was an upturn. Thanks to the implementation of habitat restoration projects and to managers paying extra attention to the species, various populations grew and the species reappeared in a number of locations. In some places, however, this recovery has been followed by decline again. In 2000 common butterwort was still to be found at about 12 locations, so the species was still very rare and endangered, but it is now less likely that it will go extinct in the Netherlands. The examples below illustrate these trends.

Trends in common butterwort in two areas

In a reserve in the Gelderse Vallei the population of common butterwort had shrunk by the late 1980s because of the encroachment of grass and herbs (see left-hand graph). The species profited from sod stripping carried out in the early 1990s, but it then went into decline again because of the vigorous growth of sphagnum moss and the appearance of herbs and tree seedlings.

In a reserve in northeast Twente careful management has resulted in the species expanding from a few dozen specimens; by 2001 there were about 6000 (see right-hand graph).