was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five br

THE DOG WALKERS ARE OUT IN FORCE on east London’s Walthamstow Marshes. They step across the neatly-laid duckboards of the flood meadow, keeping their trainers clean. Packs of mountain bikers whirr along a shingle track by the River Lea.

Most are happy to splash through a pothole at ten miles an hour. Some turn up the speed and scare the walkers. Canal boats phut past, breaking up islets of debris.

THESE MARSHES ARE A TINY part of the Lee Valley regional park, which was set up by a 1967 act of parliament to develop recreational and nature conservancy opportunities.

The velodrome for the 2012 Olympics will soon be open for business at one edge of the regional park and just across the road from here, Hackney’s east marsh will be concreted over to build parking space for cars and coaches – a decision unpopularwith the Hackney marsh user group.

But at the opposite end of the Lee Valley, reclusive wintering bittern will still be hiding in their reed beds - at a safe distance from the public. 'Fisher’s Green is one of the best places in the country to see bittern,' confirms Lee Valley park biodiversity officer Simon Wightman, 'and we’re an internationally important site for gadwell and shovelers [sic].'

ON JULY THE 18TH, 2002 CONSULTANT ECOLOGIST Brian Wurzell was working on a Walthamstow Marshes species list when he found 'three tiny, immature scraps of a plant growing below a ditch-bank'. Wurzell could hardly believe what he was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five bra

ut past, breaking up islets of debris.

THESE MARSHES ARE A TINY part of the Lee Valley regional park, which was set up by a 1967 act of parliament to develop recreational and nature conservancy opportunities.

The velodrome for the 2012 Olympics will soon be open for business at one edge of the regional park and just across the road from here, Hackney’s east marsh will be concreted over to build parking space for cars and coaches – a decision unpopularwith the Hackney marsh user group.

But at the opposite end of the Lee Valley, reclusive wintering bittern will still be hiding in their reed beds - at a safe distance from the public. 'Fisher’s Green is one of the best places in the country to see bittern,' confirms Lee Valley park biodiversity officer Simon Wightman, 'and we’re an internationally important site for gadwell and shovelers [sic].'

ON JULY THE 18TH, 2002 CONSULTANT ECOLOGIST Brian Wurzell was working on a Walthamstow Marshes species list when he found 'three tiny, immature scraps of a plant growing below a ditch-bank'. Wurzell could hardly believe what he was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five br

st marsh will be concreted over to build parking space for cars and coaches – a decision unpopularwith the Hackney marsh user group.

But at the opposite end of the Lee Valley, reclusive wintering bittern will still be hiding in their reed beds - at a safe distance from the public. 'Fisher’s Green is one of the best places in the country to see bittern,' confirms Lee Valley park biodiversity officer Simon Wightman, 'and we’re an internationally important site for gadwell and shovelers [sic].'

ON JULY THE 18TH, 2002 CONSULTANT ECOLOGIST Brian Wurzell was working on a Walthamstow Marshes species list when he found 'three tiny, immature scraps of a plant growing below a ditch-bank'. Wurzell could hardly believe what he was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five br

ms Lee Valley park biodiversity officer Simon Wightman, 'and we’re an internationally important site for gadwell and shovelers [sic].'

ON JULY THE 18TH, 2002 CONSULTANT ECOLOGIST Brian Wurzell was working on a Walthamstow Marshes species list when he found 'three tiny, immature scraps of a plant growing below a ditch-bank'. Wurzell could hardly believe what he was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five br

was looking at. He wanted to believe that he had just discovered Britain’s second colony of the critically endangered creeping marshwort, (Apium repens) previously recorded at just one other site - an Oxfordshire flood meadow.

When the plant’s first-ever flower appeared in September, it confirmed Wurzell’s identification: creeping marshwort has four or five bracts, compared to the otherwise similar fool’s watercress, with only one. 'When I finally saw the flowers,' Wurzell says, 'I knew that was it. The discovery knocked me for six.'

Wurzell’s trained eye had spotted this rarity only metres from the busiest part of the marshes, at the rough but loveable edge of the most populated city in Europe. Fortunately for creeping marshwort, this part of Walthamstow Marshes is one of English Nature’s sites of special scientific interest, whose habitats are carefully watched-over by teams of experts.

In autumn 2002, Wurzell and Lee Valley park together drew up an emergency action plan to increase suitable habitat. In March 2003, park ranger David Miller’s team re-dug the profile of a ditch close to where creeping marshwort was first found. 'Behind the ditch,' Miller explains, 'we excavated a shallow slope, and then carefully scraped away soil to expose the underlying seed-bed.'

UNTIL ABOUT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, cattle were a common sight on Walthamstow marshes. They were allowed to graze here between old Lammas Day on the 13th of August and Lady Day on the sixth of April.

In 2003, rare breeds were re-introduced to the marshes between late summer and December. It might seem surprising that these indelicate herbivores were critical to achieving the second part of the habitat management plan for creeping marshwort.

'The cattle go for the most vigorous vegetation first,' explains Brian Wurzell