Press release generates blooming great interest in mountain flower

JAHAMA Highland Estates was announcing how it was supporting a project to collect seeds of the mountain avens, an alpine plant with distinctive eight-petal blooms and a yellow centre, which is found more widely in the Scottish Highlands but classed as “vulnerable” in England and “endangered” in Wales.

The GFG Alliance Media team put out a press release on the project on Monday 13th July which attracted a surprising level of media coverage – in the UK it was picked up by the Press Association, The Telegraph, The Times, Daily Express, The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post and Herald – plus more than 150 locals outlets. Media relations officer Henry Evans said:  “We have also had interest from television broadcasters ITV and BBC so I’m amazed at the level of interest a small flower  has generated.”

Many of the stories mention that JAHAMA Highland Estates is part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance. This fits well into our comms objective of portraying GFG as a responsible, sustainable owner of land in Scotland. JAHAMA Highland Estates is working in partnership with leading wild land conservation charity John Muir Trust to restore the population of an Arctic alpine flower which has become increasingly rare across Britain’s upland regions.

The mountain avens, an alpine plant with distinctive eight-petal blooms and a yellow centre, is found more widely in the Scottish Highlands but classed as “vulnerable” in England and “endangered” in Wales. It grows in cold, sunny locations and flowers in early summer. Its cultivation is being supported as part of a broader strategy to protect Britain’s biodiversity.

Working alongside Scottish Natural Heritage and Natural England, seeds from the flowers will be collected on the estate, propagated and then planted on the slopes of Helvellyn. The third highest mountain in England’s Lake District, Helvellyn is currently managed by the John Muir Trust and one of the few places further south where the plant has a marginal foothold, which this project hopes to strengthen further.

Samples of the flower have been located on lime-rich ridges at a height of 850 metres on Beinn Na Socaich, a mountain in the Grey Corries near Fort William looked after by JAHAMA Highland Estates.

Mountain avens grow widely elsewhere in the world – they are the national flower of Iceland and the territorial emblem of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Julia Stoddart, Chief Operating Officer, Jahama Highland Estates, said: “It’s a privilege to have such a rich range of plants and wildlife on the estate and we take our management responsibilities as stewards of the landscape seriously”.