Hothfield Common Flagship Pond site, managed by Kent Wildlife Trust, is one of the last substantial areas of heathland and lowland valley bog left in South East England.

The ponds support a wide range of plant and animal species dependent on these bog habitats and on clean unpolluted water.

Of particular interest are populations of Three-lobed Water-crowfoot Ranunculus tripartitus found here. This crowfoot is typically found in the lowland acid heathlands of south-west England, south-west Wales and Anglesey, but Hothfield Common represents an outlier population in the east; a remnant of its former range.

Kent Wildlife Trust had worked with Freshwater Habitats Trust during the Million Ponds Project to create new ponds adjacent to the reserve; primarily for amphibians. Surveys with volunteers as part of the Flagship Pond project have confirmed that some of these have now also been colonised by Three-lobed Water-crowfoot and the plant continues to thrive across the sites heath and bog pools.

We were able to provide funding to re-profile the margins of some of the MPP ponds and to create a new complex of ponds to maximise the available habitat for this very rare plant.