C. Procumbent Pearlwort (Sagina procumbens)

Procumbent Pearlwort (also Matted Pearlwort or Birdeye Pearlwort) is a low-growing, perennial plant with a spreading habit. It flowers from May to September and is fairly common throughout Britain.

There are seven different species of Pearlwort plants. Each favours different habitats and/or different regions of Britain. Procumbent Pearlwort is a prostrate plant with hairless stalks, having the ability to root from its nodes.

This plant is tiny, and easily hidden by other, larger plants. Indeed, it is so small that even during three years of species surveys it escaped our attention, finally becoming noticed in October 2023 only when an adjacent colony of moss was being photographed with a macro lens. It had seeded itself in the join between two large slabs of marble headstone.

In two places, Procumbent Pearlwort has become an invasive species. On Gough Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the South Atlantic, and the Prince Edward Islands off the south coast of South Africa, the plant must have been introduced on the clothing or footwear of visitors. It has grown at an alarming rate and needed a special clearance program to avoid other, native plants being smothered. This is highly unlikely to happen in Heene Cemetery!