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Endangered Field Wormwood Given New Lease of Life in the Brecks

29 January 2026

A woman planting seeds into a seed tray

One of Britain’s rarest plants that is found only in the Brecks has been given a vital lifeline thanks to conservation efforts led by Plantlife.

78 plants of Field Wormwood Artemisia campestris – a branching, deep-rooted plant – were successfully translocated from Banham Zoo in Norfolk to Warren Hills in Mildenhall – a site chosen for its nutrient-poor soils, dry conditions and reduced competition from other vegetation, habitat in which it thrives.

Field Wormwood has fewer than 1,000 individual plants recorded in Great Britain and grows at only three native locations. Numbers have plunged due to development, forestry and intensive farming, leaving the species teetering on the brink.

The plants were grown at Banham Zoo from seed collected by Plantlife and Natural England staff and stored at Kew Millennium Seed Bank, then translocated to Warren Hills, a Forestry England site managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. The aim is to increase both the number of sites in the Brecks where Field Wormwood is found and its abundance at these sites.

“This is an important step for one of our most endangered plants,” said Jo Jones, Plantlife’s Brecks Conservation Officer. “By carefully selecting and preparing this site, we’re giving Field Wormwood the best possible chance to thrive and, hopefully, to spread naturally in the years ahead.”

Success will be monitored over the coming five years, with hopes that the population will become self-sustaining – producing new seedlings.

The team also hopes the move will benefit another rarity: the Wormwood Moonshiner beetle Amara fusca, a nationally rare species that feeds on Field Wormwood seeds. The nearest known beetle population is just over three kilometres away from Warren Hills, raising hopes that it could eventually colonise the new site naturally.

Sarah Lee, Group Head of Conservation at the Zoological Society of East Anglia said: “By growing this rare plant species at Banham Zoo, we are helping to secure its future and laying the groundwork for the next phase of the project; supporting the recovery of the wormwood moonshiner beetle, which is thought to be on the brink of extinction. This project highlights how conservation collaboration can reverse species decline and protect Norfolk and Suffolk’s unique biodiversity.”

Field Wormwood and other Brecks plants have also recently been planted in the Forest School area at Pines Primary School, Red Lodge, in coordination with Banham Zoo.