The UK is extremely fortunate in its rich history of naturalists – such as Gilbert White with his 1789 classic Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne or the army of Victorian enthusiasts (often vicars) who pressed flowers, collected butterflies and documented their parishes. These enthusiasts required structures, which led to an array of societies, such...
Floristic data were collected each year from 2011 to 2022 on embryo dunes and an associated wetland that began to form on Ainsdale beach in 2008 as a southern extension of Birkdale Green Beach. Named the ‘Newest Green Beach’ and eventually covering 2.4 ha, this feature developed rapidly by accretion of blown sand, initially around Puccinellia maritima (Common Saltmarsh-grass), to form a dune ridge over 4 m in height, protecting a seasonally-flooded primary dune-slack. By 2022, 245 vascular taxa (species subspecies and hybrids) had been recorded for the feature. Annual totals initially showed an almost linear increase in the number of plants over time.