The most obvious fern on Lundy is Bracken Pteridium aquilinum which thrives on the sheltered east side and on top of the island where there are deeper soils, but it even grows on the exposed western cliffs in a more stunted form. The smallest fern on Lundy is the Small Adder’s-tongue Fern Ophioglossum azoricum, and this diminutive plant is probably more common here than in some of its other sites on the mainland. It grows in the short turf on the western slopes, near Rocket Pole Pond and in Middle Park, often associated with the very small flowering plant Allseed Radiola linoides. Hay-scented Buckler Fern Dryopteris aemula is abundant along the east side, especially around the quarries, but this also grows on the exposed western flanks of the island, such as around Jenny’s Cove and this is also easier to find on Lundy than on the mainland.

Other common fern species on the island are Broad Buckler-fern Dryopteris dilatata, Lady Fern Athyrium foelix-foemina and Male Fern Dryopeteris filix-mas which can all be found in Millcombe and also in the deep rocky crevices of the earthquake. Hart’s-tongue Fern Phyllitis scolopendrium, recognised by its undivided fronds also favours the shelter of Millcombe.

Britain’s largest fern, the Royal Fern Osmunda regalis grows on the east side, and can be found in the quarries, often appearing to grow out of the solid rock, although it is usually more stunted in these situations. Lundy’s stone walls form an important habitat for ferns and other plants and there are fine colonies of Maidenhair Spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes , Black Spleenwort Asplenium nigrum and Common Polypody Polypodium vulgaris, some of them easily found in the village area. There are two colonies of Rustyback Fern Ceterach officinalis on Lundy, both growing on walls, and a very small number of plants of Wall Rue Aspelnium ruta-muraria can be found in two locations. This species is common on the mainland but very scarce on Lundy. Sea Spleenwort Asplenium marinum grows nearer to the sea than other ferns and can be found around the Battery and the wall at the start of the beach road.

Text by Andrew Cleave

The windswept plateau and rocky cliffs of Lundy look rather barren when approaching the island from the sea, but a rich and colourful flora, adapted to life in these exposed conditions, is more obvious once on land. A walk from the Landing Bay, up the beach road, through Millcombe and then to the west side by way of the Old Lighthouse would take in many of the important plant habitats on the island.

A typical sea cliff flora of Thrift Armeria maritima, Sea Campion Silene uniflora and Sheep’s-bit Jasione montana is found on the exposed sidelands of the island, especially around the Battery and towards the north end. At the south end, and on Rat Island Kidney Vetch Anthyllis vulneraria and Common Sorrel Rumex acetosa are more frequent, and Wild Thyme Thymus polytrichus and English Stonecrop Sedum anglicum grow on rocks and very thin soils. Early spring flowers on the east side include Primrose Primula vulgaris and Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta which flower at their best before the bracken reaches full size. These are followed by forests of Foxgloves Digitalis purpurea, some reaching nearly 3 metres in height, and the much smaller Red Campion Silene dioica. Towards the end of the season Goldenrod Solidago virgaurea is one of the last flowering plants to put on a show of colour and it seems to do best along the edges of the old quarries.

Some of Lundy’s special plants, including the endemic Lundy Cabbage Coincya wrightii can easily be seen from the beach road. Balm-leaved Figwort Scrophularia scorodonia is common here and the beautiful Wood Vetch Vicia sylvatica flourishes on the steep slopes near the bottom of the road. The island’s stone walls are host to plants such as Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis and Wall Pennywort Umbilicus rupestris, and Hare’s-foot Clover Trifolium arvense grows on the top of the walls, safe from grazing animals. Fern Grass Catapodium rigidum seems to grow only on walls, along with several species of ferns, described in more detail on the Ferns page.

The grassland on top of the island is typical of acid grassland in exposed areas, dominated by Purple Moor Grass Molinia caerulea in places, but bright with the flowers of Tormentil Potentilla repens in the early summer. In damp flushes the semi-parasitic Lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica can be found, often in association with Bog Pimpernel Anagallis tenella and Common Milkwort Polygala vulgaris. A good colony of Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata grows in the grassland surrounding Pondsbury.
In the wettest bogs, dominated by Sphagnum mosses, Common Cotton Grass Eriophorum angustifolium is very obvious in the summer and the insectivorous Sundew Drosera rotundifolia can sometimes be found. Bog Asphodel Narthecium ossifragum and Marsh St John’s Wort Hypericum elodes grow in the wettest areas and the leaves of Marsh Pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris form extensive patches in these wet areas, although its tiny flowers are quite hard to find. The grassland at times gives way to a dense cover of Creeping Willow Salix repens which is most obvious in the spring when the bright yellow catkins appear. Later in the season Cross-leaved Heath Erica tetralix flowers in the wetter areas.

Damp gravelly areas and the margins of seasonal ponds support species like Chaffweed Anagallis minima, the UK’s smallest terrestrial plant. This is now becoming scarce on the mainland but seems to do well on Lundy. Sea Storksbill Erodium maritimum is another species of gravel areas and is abundant on Lundy but much harder to find on the mainland.

On top of the island, especially around Tibbetts (Admiralty Lookout) and towards the north end, there are some fine examples of a habitat type known as maritime, or waved heath. These areas are dominated by Western Dwarf Gorse Ulex gallii which flowers late in the summer, and Ling Calluna vulgaris and Bell Heather Erica cinerea, all providing a spectacular splash of colour.

The more sheltered east side of the island supports the only trees on Lundy which grow in a few small copses in steep coombes. They are mostly hardy species, such as Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus and Beech Fagus sylvatica, with a number of Turkey Oaks Quercis cerris scattered amongst them. Other native species include Alder Alnus glutinosa, Grey Willow Salix cinerea and Elder Sambucus nigra, and these all provide sheltered conditions for several species of plants more typical of woodland, including ferns, mosses and liverworts. Plants which favour shaded habitats are more at home here and large umbellifers such as Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris and the invasive Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum grow where the soil is damp. Various species of introduced conifers can be found in Millcombe, including the native Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris, but they do not thrive here.

Relics of cultivation and former habitation appear in some areas, and there are large stands of an early Narcissus cultivar Primrose Peerless Narcissus x biflora which survives near Belle Vue Cottages above the quarries.

Many interesting plants have been recorded on Lundy in the last 100 years, but some have not been seen recently. They may just have been overlooked, or possibly have vanished altogether. Any records of Lundy's Lost Plants would be most welcome.

As with other species groups we are always keen to receive records. Details of how to submit botanical records can be found here.

Text by Andrew Cleave

Although many geologists have produced papers about Lundy, the first complete study was undertaken by Dr A T J Dollar who described Lundy's granite mass as: “the denuded core of far more lofty mountains piled up during the Armorican folding ... half liquid magma pushed up into the cavities at the base of the mountainous folds of rock and solidifies. Then, as millions of years go by with their millions of seasons of rain and frost ... denude the masses ... until a time may be reached when the granite core, the solidified magma so much harder than the overlying rocks, is all that remains.”

Research since then has shown that Dollar’s assumption that the Lundy granite was of the same age as that seen on Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor was incorrect, the Lundy granite being much more recent at between 59 and 52 million years old. This means that rather than being formed during the Amorican folding (now the Varascan orongeny) they were formed as part of a period of active vulcanicity and formed part of the British Tertiary Volcanic Province (BTVP), best known in western Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The southeast corner of Lundy is all that now remains of the overlying slates and these now join the granite in a distinct line from the Sugar Loaf to the Rattles. This slate is similar to the Morte slates of North Devon and may be called Upper Devonian. The island plateau forms a marine plane, similar to many in Southern England at the 120m (400ft) contour.

There are also numerous dykes, mostly of dolerite, that have invaded cracks in the older rocks and since formed foci for erosion. The dykes are a feature of the BTVP and are only slightly younger than the granite at 56-45 Ma. As well as the overall NW-SE trend seen throughout the BTVP, some dykes show evidence of a local centre from which they radiate. This, and the presence of a positive anomaly in the earth’s magnetic field to the west of the island suggest that there was a volcano there which probably reached the surface (although any evidence for this will have eroded away). The Lundy granite formed from the original magma chamber (possibly 10km below the surface at that time) and the dykes from later episodes of vulcanism, their different composition the result of fractional crystalisation.

Dollar classified the granite into three types: G1 which is an even-grained white orthoclase variety; G2, a variety with phenocrysts of orthoclase and quartz set in a microgranite groundmass; and G3 and G3a which are microgranites. These distinctions probably relate to the way that the granite cooled rather than being distinct types.

The plateau surface of the granite massif is almost level and bounded on all sides by steeply inclined sidelands at the base of which are vertical cliffs. The erosive activity of the many small streams that drain the surface has been minimal and virtually all the streams have developed along weaknesses in the granite or along dykes, such as those in Gannets' Combe.

There has long been discussion of the effects of glaciation on the island but the latest research has suggested that the geomorphology of Lundy can be largely interpreted as the product of glacial processes. There is widespread smooting and lineation (running WNW-ESE) of surfaces, which together with grooved whaleback forms, can be interpreted as subglacial ice moulding. There are also channels, now dry, that can also be intepreted as having formed as subglacial meltwater channels. There are large areas of eratic gravels and cobbles in the north part of the island whose composition reflects the geology of Pembrokeshire to the NW of Lundy. Their location again suggests movement by subglacial meltwater. The two main stream systems (Millcombe and Gannets' Combe) appear to have been overdeepened by meltwater following lines of geological weakness.

Scientific dating has shown that the the rocks were exposed as the ice melted between 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, long before the maximum extent of glaciation was reached (the global Last Glacial Maximum, LGM, at around 26,000 to 21,000 years ago). This dating suggests that the extent and timing of glaciation is complex at the southern limits. It does show that the ice did reach this far south during the last glaciation which had been questioned before.

Following the end of the glacial, Lundy would have formed a significant hill in a wide plain where the Bristol channel now lies. As more ice melted, the sea would have risen and flooded to south and north leaving a peninsula that would have become an island at around 7500 BC. The present landscape is dominated by granite tors formed by the weathering of the granite by chemical and physical processes.

Minerals found on Lundy include copper ore which is found at the junction of the granite and slate at the south end of the island just east of Benjamin's Chair. During the mid-19th century three shafts were opened in the hope of finding workable quantities but the find was not worth commercial exploitation. A vein was also found near Long Roost and three adits were made, but the quality of ore was too poor to be worked. During the Second World War an inspector visited Lundy to see if the molybdenum ore, of which there was then a shortage, could be worked, but again the amount was not commercially viable.

Other minerals recorded are:

• Beryl - in small white-yellow columnar crystals.
• Feldspar - in white tubular crystals.
• Fluorite - crystalline and massive.
• Garnet
• Mica - in plates and hexagonal crystals.
• Rock crystal - transparent, frequently dark brown or black.
• Schorl
• China clay - formed from disintegrating feldspar, present in small; quantities but too impregnated with iron to be useful.

In the slate are are veins and strings of Gossan containing:

• Blende - sulphuret of zinc in traces.
• Towanite - copper pyrites.
• Magnetite - magnetic iron ore, found in a vein below Benjamin's Chair.
• Quartz - amorphous and crystalline is found in veins crossing the slate in every direction. This is the most abundant non-metallic mineral.
• Limestone - a seam appears on the beach and passes southeastwards through Hell's Gates. This weakness of a soluble mineral probably accounts for the separation of Rat Island from the main island.

 Original text by Tony Langham, updated by Chris Webster