Seed ‘for growing under trees’: the source of wood lawn neophytes in the parkland of Scottish mansion houses

Nine species of wood lawn neophytes (Grassameneinkommlinge) have been reported from the parkland of mansion houses in the Scottish Borders. These species have most probably been introduced during the nineteenth century when laying out lawns and parkland studded with trees in the style of English landscape gardens. Similar occurrences have been reported from several northwest European countries, but the presence of such neophytes in Britain is not well known and it is poorly documented. We have found evidence that Poa nemoralis seed ‘for growing under trees’ was also traded in Scotland; moreover, the particular wood lawn neophytes reported prove that the seed mixtures for shaded lawns must have come from south and central Germany, as that is the provenance of all the species found. These mostly grass-like neophytes often occur together, but it is not always clear whether a particular species was deliberately added to the seed mixtures or whether it was merely a seed impurity. Be that as it may, the...