The team at Killarney National Park is thrilled to have discovered a rare plant, last recorded in the park almost 130 years ago.
Mary Sheehan, district conservation officer with Killarney National Parks and Wildlife Service, was out on a routine survey of the park with some park rangers when they discovered the yellow bird’s nest plant.
The team contacted Dr Rory Hodd, county recorder for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, who confirmed its last sighting in Killarney National Park was in 1896.
The man who recorded the plant in the park 128 years ago, Reginald William Scully, wrote in 1916 that the plant was very uncertain in its appearances, but he had no doubt it would reappear in the park at some point.
Mary Sheehan says it was a thrill to discover the plant after so long.
