Plant story
Damasonium alisma
Damasonium alisma seeds
Damasonium alisma (Starfruit) is listed in the UK Schedule 8, and is classified as Endangered. It is a beautiful aquatic herb found at muddy pond margins where the water level fluctuates, and likes the trampling effect of cattle. Its preferred area has drastically reduced in recent decades and the species was not recorded in the wild at all in 2006. The MSB holds seeds from four different UK sites.
The original starfruit seed collections were small, but in 2001 Kew horticulturalists used seed to grow plants at Wakehurst Place resulting in the harvesting of about 29,000 seeds.
Re-introducing D. alisma into ponds at Greenham Common (Photo: J. Wenham)
Wakehurst Place horticultural staff have been working with Plantlife, Natural England and local authorities to introduce starfruit to pond margins on Greenham Common, using seed, and plants raised from seed stored in the MSB. Apparently starfruit is only able to flourish if pond margins are disturbed by animals. On Greenham Common, cattle use the ponds for drinking and it is hoped that the action of their hooves churning up the mud will help to provide suitable conditions for the survival of the introduced material.