Rare flower wiped out in record heat and drought
It used to be such an abundant sight in the New Forest that it was a challenge counting them all
A rare flower may have been wiped out in southern England by extreme heat and drought, in what experts warn is a “canary in the mine” for how climate change is driving the loss of species.
The field gentian has bloomed across Britain until now, and until recently was such an abundant sight in the New Forest, Hampshire, that it was a challenge counting them all, conservationists said.
But 2026’s record-warm summer with successive heatwaves and punishing drought, in the third such extreme summer in five years, may have led to their loss from southern England altogether.
The Species Recovery Trust, a charity which aims to save some of Britain’s most endangered species, said the loss of a plant that was so abundant in the places it was found was “deeply worrying”.
Dominic Price, director of the Species Recovery Trust, said the field gentian grew in dry or “skeletal” grasslands, which are on the “absolute front line” of climate change as they become parched and dead in hot, dry weather.
In 2022, when temperatures in the UK soared to 40C for the first time on record amid an extremely hot, dry summer, field gentian populations crashed for the first time across all known sites in the south of England, and went extinct at a county-level in Devon.
Populations recovered slightly the following year, and it was thought the New Forest populations could survive, due to their sheer size – often more than 5,000 plants at each site – and their ability for seeds to move with livestock into more sheltered areas.
But then populations were hit by successive record hot summers and droughts, in 2025 and again this year.
The Species Recovery Trust has confirmed it has been unable to locate a single field gentian plant in the New Forest for the second year in a row.
Mr Price said “there’s potential for a miracle” with a wet summer next year helping the plant stage a comeback.
But he warned previous evidence tended to show the plant did not return once it was lost, and suggested field gentians had been seen for the last time in southern England.
He said: “This loss of what was such an abundant plant is deeply worrying, and in many ways, it feels like a canary in the mine for how climate change is likely to accelerate species loss, especially in the south of England.
“We expected to be gradually losing species as the planet warmed up, but the scale and speed of what we are already witnessing is pretty breathtaking.”
He said there were still sites in the north of England and Scotland where field gentians were thriving, but added “even these may not be safe forever”.
Leanne Sargeant, nature recovery manager with Forestry England, which manages much of the New Forest, said: “We were alarmed to hear of these drastic crashes in populations of the field gentian.
“Management of the sites hasn’t changed, so this has to be down to these hot, dry summers.
“We all need to learn more about how climate change will affect species so we can help as many as possible to survive.”