How many species?

[Jambo]

How many species of wildflowers are there in the UK?

Alan Titchmarsh was in a field the other day wtih a botanist who reckoned that there were about 30 different species in every square metre of the meadow that they were in. I've got some books that have a few hundred UK wildflowers in them, but I was wondering if there is a bit more of a precise total number.

[PeterJL]

Stace describes 3,525 which includes sub species but not the detail of Brambles and hawkweeds. I know of one botanist who claims to have seen over different 5,000 plants - my guess is that including sub species and micro species there are about 7,000 different plants inclusing introductions and aliens but some such as Ranunculus auricomus (Goldilocks buttercup) have micro sub species which haven't been separated yet.

[nightshade]

the wildflower key(francis rose) covers 1400 species

[Imaginos]

Originally Posted by nightshade

the wildflower key(francis rose) covers 1400 species

And is in no way exhaustive. A number of the rarer flowering plants are not covered, and as for grasses, ferns, conifers, bryophytes....

[nightshade]

name dropper