The UK’s countryside is home to a wide variety of plant species, each playing a vital role in maintaining the landscape’s ecosystem. From common perennial grasses to ancient ferns that have survived and thrived around the globe for millions of years, the diversity of the UK’s plant life might surprise you. Although the data can be difficult to gather and track, some research bodies have helped provide a few answers.
What’s the most common plant in the UK?
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology undertakes regular Countryside Surveys to monitor changes in the UK’s natural environment by tracking specific areas of the UK’s countryside and with a focused approach. In its 2022-23 survey, plant species were recorded from various plots within 259 one-kilometre squares across Britain, for example.
In 2007, UKCEH collected 266,199 plant records and found these to be the 10 most frequent plants found in Britain:
- Yorkshire fog grass: a hairy, perennial grass, which is seen throughout the year in meadows and other grassland habitats
- Bramble: common in woodland, hedges and scrub, bramble grows almost everywhere in the UK and thrives in acidic soils
- Common nettle: also known as the stinging nettle
- Cocksfoot grass: perennial tufted grass
- Creeping bent: perennial grass species, which runs along the ground before it bends and grows upright
- Hawthorn: a plant commonly found in hedgerows, these plants grow small berries
- Creeping buttercup: it’s easy to spot the bright yellow flowers of the creeping buttercup
- Common bent: a perennial grass
- Perennial rye-grass: a tufted, quick-growing, persistent grass found on roadside verges
- Red fescue: a common tufted perennial grass
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What’s the most common plant in the world?
The most common plant in the world is thought to be bracken, found on all continents except Antarctica.
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is native to the UK and is considered our largest fern and among the commonest plants around the world. It offers shelter to various species, habitats for nesting birds, and is found in woodland and heathland in the UK, in a wide range of different soil types. It also provides a food source for various species of moth.
The fronds (leaves) of bracken change colour from their usual green to a russety reddish-brown in colour in the autumn months.
It is believed to be an ancient plant, with some records dating it back as far as 55 million years.
The leaves/fronds of bracken produce hydrogen cyanide, particularly when they are young. This is used as a defence mechanism against herbivores, so grazing animals can be lightly poisoned if they graze on it.
Because it can quickly take over an area, bracken needs to be actively managed.
More plant stories
- Guide to the UK's parasitic meadow plants
- Britain's rarest plants on the verge of extinction
- 12 riverside plants to spot
- 10 plants poisonous to horses
Top image: Bracken in Scots pine forestry (Pinues sylvestris), Ashdown Forest, Sussex (credit: Getty Images)