On the 10th August 2016 I wrote an extended entry on the aforementioned plant.
I recently inherited, very kindly, a set of Chris Howkins books and booklets. This author was quite well known by the former owner of the books having been to numerous talks of his. He researches and publicises the history of the use of plants in the British isles through talks, rambles, books, articles and boat trips. He has been on radio and TV as well.
I thought I had not heard of him until I saw the set of books and then I realised a friend of mine who used to be Surrey wildlife trust ranger introduced me to some of his books when I was researching on similar themes that Chris covers. The books are quite distinct due to the wonderful artwork they incorporate.
In preparing for the next Forest Church I was reading through Chris Howkins book Heathland Harvest; the uses of heathland plants through the ages and I noticed an entry on Shallon.
I discovered that in his book he writes that the plant was first recorded in Surrey on Leith Hill in 1914 where it had naturalized! He goes on to write that it covers a large area in the county and a spilt over into further counties such as Hampshire and Sussex and is invading Dorset heaths alarmingly. He writes that calls for it to be exploited as a crop and a stabiliser of new roadworks seem to be going unhindered!
In my ignorance on my blog where I first wrote about it I was concerned that it had grown out of control unnoticed little did I know that it had been there on Leith Hill for just over a hundred years!