Invasive Alexanders threaten £2m legacy daffodils

Volunteers are working to keep a town's daffodils flowering by removing the invasive Alexander plant from among the bulbs.

The flowers were planted in Sidmouth, Devon, thanks to a legacy of more than £2m pounds from a local millionaire in 2022 and are now under threat of becoming "blind", meaning they don't flower.

Stefan Drew, from the Sid Valley Biodiversity group, explained Alexanders were brought over as a food crop by the Romans and now fight native species for space along the British coastline.

"The weeds compete for water, nutrients, and light, daffodils create the next year's flower now and if too much shadow is created by the Alexanders, that's it", he said.

Drew said the flowers had "been in tourism brochures around the world, it's become an icon of the town and the town depends on tourism largely, so fewer daffodils, fewer tourists, businesses suffer".

Paul Dodds, vice-chair of Sidmouth Town Council, said getting outside and helping with the project was good for the volunteers' health as well as being good for the town.

"People who get involved in activities like this don't feel isolated, they feel part of the community, they're involved, we form bonds and friendships that will last for a lifetime," he continued.

"Apparently we have more over-90s than any other part of the world and it's because we are all out here doing this sort of stuff."

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