A rare flower has been kept alive by walkers trampling through mud on a coastal path in Angelsey.

The three-lobed water-crowfoot, which is part of the buttercup family, is able to grow because walkers are disturbing the ground around it.

The tiny plant grows in shallow pools, puddles and even tractor and hoof tracks.

It has to mature quickly before the ruts and puddles dry out in summer so it sheds seeds into the mud in spring.

Trevor Dines from Plantlife Cymru says there are fewer than 20 plants, including the water-crowfoot, growing in a ditch on the path.

"We don't always get to work on glamorous orchids in wonderful meadows - this mud-loving crowfoot likes nothing more than creeping through filthy ditches, ruts and shallow pools," he said.

"There are no cattle or sheep to disturb the mud so the plants depend entirely on walkers that cross the ditch on the coastal path.

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We don't always get to work on glamorous orchids in wonderful meadows”

Trevor Dines
Plantlife Cymru
"It's a precarious situation. If someone decides to put in stepping stones or a wooden bridge over the ditch that would be the end of this tiny population."

Mr Dines added in certain parts of Anglesey and the Lleyn Peninsular the three-lobed water-crowfoot needed a little extra help.

Plantlife experts have helped cleared out over grown pools so horses and cattle can trample the edges creating that much needed open mud.

He said when the animals move from pool to pool they also spread the seed with their hooves and as a result the flower is springing up along tracks and is now growing in more sites than ever before.

"Now we know what the little flower likes, we're getting good at getting it back," Mr Dines added.

Across Wales, the number of sites for this plant have doubled since 1999.