Shanklin Chine’s new exhibition “Flora of the Island” was officially opened by Bill Shepard on Thursday, 18th May 2006.
Bill Shepard is one of the co-authors of the “The Flora of the Island of Wight” published in 1978. For many years he tried to teach the owner of the Chine Anne Springman, the difference between a male and female fern but without success.
In his opening speech Bill made the following comments: “If you had asked half a century ago, how many species of flowering plants make up the vegetative covering of the Island, I would have replied approximately a thousand. Ask me that same question today and I would reply approximately 1200. The reason for that dramatic increase is complex, but there are two irrefutable contributors: a warming climate and the importation of plants and seeds from all over the world. In that first category, that of a warming climate, many of these plants would not have survived.
In the second category, the import of plants from around the world with the inevitable dispersal of seed, the huge number of bird feeding tables stocked with imported seed and the changing crops grown by farmers, especially the planting of pheasant feed.
Finally, a word about Shanklin Chine. Of all the tourist attractions in the Island, this is the ‘Jewel in the Crown’; the thinking man’s venue, as close to a tropical rain forest as you can get in Britain”.
The Isle of Wight, a mere 147 square miles in area, is for its size remarkably rich in plants. The maritime location of the Island, off the south coast of Britain, ensures a climate without extremes. The Island’s varied geology gives rise to a range of landscapes that is unique and it has been described as a microcosm of southern England. The Island is home to a surprising large number of nationally scarce plants, but it is the sheer variety of habitats in close proximity – woodland, saltmarsh, sand dune, shingle, cliffs, wetlands, heathlands and downland – that makes the Island flora so special.