Oxfordshire Flora Group
Species
Fallopia dumetorum, Copse-bindweed
Copse Bindweed, or Snake-weed as Sibthorp called it, is a twining annual easily confused with Black Bindweed. It is Nationally Scarce, and Red Listed as Vulnerable. It was found near Tubney in Druce’s time and was seen there by Humphrey Bowen in 1963, then not recorded again until re-found in the verge of the A420 by Roger Heath-Brown in 2009. In 2019 it flowered well, but rather late, and then the verges were mown off before seed could be collected. It is, however, self-pollinating and, though an annual, has long-lived seed, so we shall let the Highways Authority know and try to collect seed again in 2020.