In message , Mike Lyle
writes
On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:35:00 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Cotoneaster integrifolius, Cotoneaster simonsii, Cotoneaster bullatus,
Cotoneaster microphyllus and Cotoneaster horizontalis are all on
Schedule 9 ("It is also an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow
in the wild invasive non-native plants listed on Schedule 9 of the
Wildlife and Countryside Act.").

Some conservation NGOs want to put the whole genus on Schedule 9. (Fide
Stace, 83 species and 3 hybrids have been recorded from the wild in the
UK.)

Around here the commoner species are simonsii, rehderi, horizontalis, x
watereri and hjelmqvistii.

OTOH, Cotoneaster is not obviously more invasive than Aster, Buddleia,
Solidago, Spiraea, Sympharicarpos, etc., which aren't on Schedule 9.

!!!!! Quite. The trouble about laws like that is that it is far
too common to start with a relatively rational list in the schedule,
but for every monomaniac with a hobby-horse to be able to get it
extended, and yet it be almost impossible to get anything off it.

I think there's some justification for the cotoneasters' inclusion in
the forlorn hope to protect _C. cambricus_, endemic to the Great Orme,
from hybridisation. They should probably move the plant to Oxford,
famously the home of lost causes.

The 2010 update was totally insane. Montbretia, for heaven's sake!

Heh! Is _Acer pseudoplatanus_ on the list?


No. Nor is Acer platanoides, which might be worse, except that sycamore
had a head start.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Media/PDFs/Adv...let-schedule-9

A lot of the list looks like bolting the stable door after the horse has
escaped.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley